


Catfishing

by boleyn13



Series: Folie à deux [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Betrayal, Catfishing, Dark Loki (Marvel), Dating, Emotional Manipulation, Falling In Love, False Identity, Gen, Lies, Magic, Original Male Character - Freeform, Romance, SHIELD, Seduction, Spying, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-03-15 13:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 69,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13614117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boleyn13/pseuds/boleyn13
Summary: “I don’t see your point. We’re trying to get Loki in a situation where he will be easy to capture. Finding out his hiding spots, learning about his routine, figuring out his weaknesses.”“Yes, but… Tony is right. How far are we willing to go with this? What do we… actually expect you to do?”“Captain America clearly will never be able to do an under-cover mission… you always go as far as the mission needs you to go.”SHIELD is setting an agent on Loki. To gain his trust and to eventually trap him in a situation where he will be easy to get captured. Neither Fury nor the Avengers expected things to go so well for them.





	1. I just met you

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> SHIELD is trying to catfish Loki (not online though). It can only go wrong, right?
> 
> Don't worry, it's going to be rather short ;)
> 
> Have fun :)

It was one of those times. Time to fall asleep. Tony’s ears had stopped working a long time ago. By now Fury’s endless and terribly repetitive speech had completely faded into the background and instead Tony was studying the colour of the wall. What a fascinating kind of… white. Or was it beige? Hard to tell.

“… absolutely necessary to improve our communication to a point where…”

Really? Fury was still talking? Tony wanted so badly to moan out loud or to roll his eyes, but then the entire thing was going to take even longer and Tony was already wasting precious lifetime. Obviously though he was the only one to think so, because every other Avenger looked perfectly attentive. 10 more minutes, how much longer could it possibly take?

Tony was busy thinking about which one might be his favourite Star Trek episode when somebody did him a favour and interrupted Fury.

“I’m sorry, Director, but I…”

“Agent Rayne, this is an Avengers meeting.” Fury narrowed his eyes, very obviously annoyed by the agent who entered the room without knocking.

“I know, but this is important.” The agent insisted, still somewhat politely and that instantly earned him a dark glare. “As far as I know you haven’t been on a mission recently, so I am sure that any information you might have can wait another 30 minutes.”

No, that was too much for Tony to take. “What? 30 minutes? Please, say whatever you want to say, just make him stop talking.”

“Stark.” Natasha reproachfully said his name as if that was going to make him feel bad for being so tired of Fury’s monologues. Actually Tony was surprised that Steve wasn’t glaring at him yet, probably Fury had stopped giving them actual information hours ago.

“Hey, when an agent storms into such a tremendously important meeting that can only mean that the building is probably already on fire and Nick here wants to ignore it.” Tony winked at Fury who definitely made a mental note to kill Tony eventually. For now he decided to get rid of the agent quicker by listening to him. “Fine, agent Rayne, go ahead, but it’d better be important.”

Rayne nodded and didn’t lose a second. “I think I got in contact with the Ghost.”

Well, that was a disappointment. Strangely enough not for Fury who suddenly looked like Rayne had told him that he had only five more minutes to live. “What? When?”

“Just half an hour ago on my way to work.”

“How is that even possible?! Why haven’t you immediately contacted HQ? Where is my report? How are you even…”

Tony hated it when he had no idea what was going on. Like right now. Also Fury was begging to be interrupted. “Uhm, sorry, but what are you talking about? Who is the Ghost? Like an actual ghost? If so I am really pissed for not being involved in the secret ghost project.”

“The Ghost is SHIELD’s codename for Loki.” Clint muttered absently and Tony noted that he had balled one hand into a fist. Tony couldn’t help it to feel bad now and his body went instantly into high-alert mode. “Why don’t you just call him Loki? That wouldn’t be so fucking confusing.”

“Tony, that’s not the point right now. Where did you see Loki?” Steve directed the attention back to agent Rayne who was still standing in the open door, looking a bit out of place and just the slightest bit taken aback at how an Avengers meeting looked like. “Like I’ve said – half an hour ago. I saw him in a book store that I like to frequent.”

It was fascinating what a name could do. Mention Loki to this group of people and the bored, dry atmosphere turned into tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. Nobody was leaning back against their chair anymore. Everyone was sitting straight, leaning forward, listening attentively and Tony already felt his fingers twitching. Half an hour ago? So maybe there was still a chance to get the son of a bitch?

“Despite the risk of repeating myself… why didn’t I receive that message half an hour ago? We would have had several teams ready to take him in!” Normally Tony would have been annoyed by Fury’s big, bad show, but now it was about Loki and he couldn’t deny that he agreed with him.

Kudos to the agent though, he didn’t bat an eyelid, completely unimpressed. A blank face similar to Natasha’s. “I decided against contacting HQ because I saw an opportunity to shadow him. At first I wasn’t sure that it was him, sir. His hair was different and he moved easily among the people. He was shopping. Due to the large amount of civilians and considering Loki’s abilities I didn’t want to risk alerting him.”

“That was a good decision, agent.” Steve nodded appreciatively and Tony could admit that calling in the Avengers would have probably ended in a huge disaster since Loki didn’t bother to get people out of the way before attacking them.

“So instead of calling back-up you decided to do nothing and tell us afterwards that you happened to see SHIELD’s most wanted criminal.” Natasha cocked an eyebrow at Rayne and Tony admired that a person could look this condescending by doing so little.

One didn’t have to be very observant to notice that it rubbed Rayne the wrong way. Not very surprising. “I’ve been on 17 undercover missions, agent Romanoff. I am more than capable of surveilling somebody without being noticed. I observed him for 15 minutes then he got ready to leave… Given his history of just vanishing thanks to teleportation I figured that he would be gone as soon as he left the store, so I made a judgement call and approached him.”

Tony wanted to ask if Rayne wasn’t by any chance mind-controlled. No, his eyes seemed naturally blue. Pretty. “Now isn’t the right time for a dramatic pause. What did you do?”

Rayne raised his right hand that was holding his phone. “I got his number.”

Now that was an effective way to make them all fall completely silent. Tony let his eyes travel across the room, from one face to the next and he saw the very same thing on all of them. Utter shock. Well, there had to be a reasonable and logical explanation for this. Loki might actually have a phone. Okay, Loki could buy that. Not that much of a problem. “So… you hacked his phone. Good job, agent. A free cookie for you. I like it when people use their IT background.”

Tony already knew that it wasn’t going to be that simple which instantly made Rayne the most interesting person in the room which was quite an achievement. “No, Mr. Stark, I asked him for it.”

Well, Tony would leave it to the others to comment on this, he needed a couple more minute to grasp even the bare concept of what was happening.

“Are you making a joke? Because let me tell you that it’s not funny.” Clint grumbled softly and Rayne shook his head. “I am not joking. I approached him, I talked to him, then I asked him for his number and he gave it to me.”

No, Tony couldn’t help it. “Sorry, but are we really talking about Loki here? Tall guy. Long black hair. Eyes green as poison. A bit power hungry and with sociopathic tendencies. That Loki? Or did you just pick up some random guy while book shopping. Which would still be cool, but way less interesting.”

“Stark…” Natasha only sighed his name which was probably supposed to tell him something, but Tony didn’t care, because how the hell was he supposed to wrap his head around the fact that Loki was handing out his phone number. While Tony was still pondering that Natasha continued to talk. “You’re lucky to still be alive, agent Rayne.”

“I disagree.”

Everybody’s head turned to look at Thor who oddly hadn’t said anything until now. “You have had one conversation with my brother, Romanoff. You don’t know him. He has never reacted aggressively to possible suitors even if he was very annoyed by them. He likes to taunt and mock people even if they aren’t aware of it. It would be much more like him to play along and give the agent a fake number and laugh as soon as he was gone. That possibility is much more likely.”

Fury let out the strangest noise, which reminded Tony of a growl. “This is not getting us anywhere. Rayne, sit down. I want the whole report. Your phone is going straight to IT. Don’t leave anything out.”

So Tony got to hear how a SHIELD agent, off duty at that time, ran into Loki and how he pretended to be into the same books as him to eventually ask him for his phone number.

“Details, please. If you got Loki to give you his number, I may need your advice in the future.”

“Tony, be serious. Agent Rayne, could he have suspected anything? That you aren’t a regular civilian?” Steve didn’t even take his time to properly scowl Tony. What a shame.

The agent responded by shaking his head. “I guess there is no way to know for sure, but I don’t think so, Captain. I didn’t get that vibe.”

“A vibe? That’s supposed to be enough.”

Natasha seemed to like switching sides in this conversation. Now she was suddenly pointing out how Rayne was right. “Intuition is a main part of spy work, Stark. You have to make decisions in split seconds.”

“Okay, alright. So we have Loki’s phone number. What are we going to do with it?” Tony was losing his patience over this, because nobody had just suggested yet that they should simply call him. They’d figure out what to say to him later on.

“It might be a way to locate him, lure him into a trap… or at first to keep taps on him. If it really is his phone number.” Natasha pointed out the obvious before turning back to Rayne. “Did you insinuate a romantic interest when you asked for his phone number?”

“Not specifically, but I told him that I’d like to meet up again to talk to him… I had to improvise and the way I spoke up to him… I don’t think there is any other way he could have interpreted it.”

Well, now even Tony had to admit that Rayne had some balls. Walking up to Loki and pretending to be into him, that definitely meant risking your neck. But now that Tony was thinking about it, he couldn’t hold back from making another comment. “Thor, take a good look. Could Rayne be your brother’s type? Not everybody is into tall, blue eyed guys with perfect hair.”

Rayne ever so slightly arched his eyebrow at Tony. Like most people did when they weren’t used to him. Yes, Rayne had definitely imagined the Avengers meeting differently. Things got only better when Thor answered that absolutely legit question. “My brother has always had very diverse taste, but I believe that the agent’s appearance would please him.”

“I’m sorry, but what conversation are we having here?” Clint seemed more upset than confused, probably because he had a very good idea where they were going with this.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Fury sighed, rubbing one temple. That man was very obviously suffering from a major headache. “First we need to try and track that phone down, then we need to come up with a complete battle plan…”

Clint leaned over to Tony, muttering under his breath “20 dollars that he mistook some guy with a weird haircut for Loki.”

“Oh please. I am a billionaire, remember?”

“Okay, 50 dollars.”

“Deal.”

 ***

The next day all of them were ordered back to the headquarters for another meeting. When Steve entered the conference room he saw agent Rayne already sitting there next to Fury. No doubt that this conversation was also going to be about Loki.

Had they been able to locate him yet? To be completely honest Steve had no idea if Rayne had actually come into contact with Loki. Their supervillain going out to buy books like everybody else? Hard to believe.

“Here we are, Nick. Come on, tell us. Our friend and Loki have already agreed on a date?” Tony dropped on a chair next to Steve and Fury immediately scowled. “I would really appreciate it if you didn’t take this situation lightly, Stark.”

“Can’t make any promises.”

Steve decided to ignore Tony’s comments and instead directly addressed Fury. “What do we need to know, sir?”

“That the phone number agent Rayne received leads into a black hole. We’re unable to locate it and officially the number doesn’t exist. We’ve run out of options. Well, except for calling him. Which are we going to do. Now.”

To Steve’s surprise it was Clint who bluntly asked Fury if he was serious. Not Tony.

“Yes, agent Barton, I am serious. Agent Rayne and me have gone through this plan several times. He is going to invite to one of several places that we’ve picked out. When that meeting takes place, the Avengers are going to be around to interfere and take Loki in if possible.”

“That doesn’t sound like a plan… maybe the fifth of a plan, but nothing more. Also, did I get that right? You are actually setting them up for a date? I was only joking when I said that.”

“Are you convinced that this is the right way to go about it? There is still time to get a few more people working on this.” Natasha glanced at Rayne who was way faster to understand the meaning behind it than Steve.

“I am perfectly qualified and very much capable of this task. Also I am the only one who can do this, because Loki gave me his number. Not somebody else.”

Next to Steve Clint huffed. “I am still not sure if we’re even talking about Loki here.”

Fury didn’t bother to even glance at him. “Highly unlike that it’s not the case. He introduced himself as Loki and Thor took a look at the piece of paper that he wrote his phone number on. He identified it as Loki’s handwriting.”

Steve swallowed softly. So it was true. Loki was indeed wandering around the city like an ordinary citizen. Able to interact with everybody. Sure, it seemed foolish now that Steve had ever thought that Loki would stay all the time in his hiding stop when he wasn’t lancing a new attack.

“Rayne, you know what to do. Let’s go.” Fury made an inviting gesture and Rayne nodded. To Steve he didn’t look particularly nervous, but they probably had been practicing this for hours. “You being here is merely for sparing me the time of keeping you all updated with the process. Nobody is going to say a word.” Fury warned them while Rayne was already typing in a phone number.

Steve felt like holding his breath, then quickly realised that that would be ridiculous and instead settled for gnawing on his lower lip. Perfect silence was filling the room for several seconds. Perhaps it had been a prank after all and Loki was never going to answer the phone.

Until he did.

It was this very second that Steve realised that he would never be any good at spy missions. Acting was fine if it was for fun, between friends as an innocent game. This was none of that. Rayne had to pretend to be excited to talk to a murderer who was feeling nothing but distain for all of mankind. That didn’t mean that Rayne wasn’t doing a pretty good job. “Hey, Loki. This is Sebastian. You know… from the bookstore…”

No, Steve had to correct himself. This was incredibly impressive. He sounded almost shy, a bit awkward and excited to talk to Loki. As if he was asking somebody for a real date. “Right, yeah… Listen, I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with me sometime? Preferably Friday night…”

A couple of seconds of silence which meant Loki was talking.

“Oh… yes, sure. If that’s what you’d rather do. I know just the… Alright, sure. Why not? Tomorrow five o’clock? Great. I’m looking forward to seeing you again. Bye.” It was like hitting a button. The second the conversation was over the smile vanished from Rayne’s face and the expression that remained was so sour. “That didn’t quite work out as planned.”

“Why? Didn’t he fall for your incredible charm?” Tony was all too happy to bring his sarcasm back up. Rayne looked once more like he would definitely have preferred to do all of this without the Avengers. Steve understood him perfectly.

 ***

They got to hear the record of the phone call several times. Loki’s side of the conversation wasn’t very energetic, but definitely interesting. Also a bit harsh. He declined Rayne’s suggestion to have dinner by telling him that he preferred a coffee. Like that it would be easier to get rid of him if he should turn out to bore Loki to death.

Charming, right?

It also brought up a couple of problems. Loki had got to choose the location and the café of his choice was a highly frequented place. Excessively dangerous for bystanders and hard to control. They couldn’t afford risking Loki seeing a familiar face. The suggestion was brought up to get in some agents to pose as staff of the café. Why not a fake waitress? Steve spoke up against it.

“We already know that he went to the bookstore. Maybe that’s something he likes to do. Maybe he likes the café too. If he goes there often, he knows the staff. He would notice the change. We should better send in somebody among the guests.”

Due to the location the plan was rather simple. No attack, just observation. Rayne should try to get Loki to talk, find out any kind of information that could be useful. At first Tony could have said that the entire idea was stupid, but for some reason Loki had agreed to meet up with Rayne. It wasn’t impossible that he was already aware of what was going on and tried to lure them into a trap and not vice-versa.

Or Loki was just a guy like everybody else and was game when an attractive person of the preferred sex approached him. Rayne was cute, no question about that. His job though might easily end up killing him. If Loki realised that they were playing him

According to Fury that shouldn’t be a problem, Rayne had plenty of experience when it came down to undercover missions. Actually more than Natasha. Which really seemed to bother her and made Tony grin like a maniac. It was all very short lived. Suddenly the date was there and the Avengers were hiding out in different places, a couple of streets away from the café where Loki and Rayne were going to meet. Tony and Clint were hanging out in a van with complete video surveillance. At least five agents were guests in the café, all of them wearing hidden cameras. Thanks to them they had a nice view of Rayne sitting at a table, waiting for Loki.

Waiting for Loki. Which was still the most bizarre thing that had ever happened on this planet. There was no way in hell that Loki was going to show up. No chance.

“I can’t believe that Fury said okay to this… Loki is either just fucking with Rayne or he is looking right through this and is immediately going to kill him. That’s the definition of a shit job.” Clint was muttering under his breath, tapping his foot against the floor of the van.

“Or Loki just wants to get laid… you are a guy. You should know that everybody has some needs.”

“So you don’t think that this isn’t going to end up in immediate disaster, because this is the worst idea that any human being has ever had?” Clint tilted his head and looked at Tony questionably who shrugged. “Every reality show ever was a worse idea than this… He probably won’t even show up. It’s Loki, he’s fucking with us.”

“Very possible… but…” Clint shifted uncomfortably. “Thor’s told us before that his brother gets bored really easily. Perhaps he’ll just show up to get some entertainment… like going on a date with a guy to steal all of his money, then leaving him broke and very sexually frustrated.”

“That would be an asshole move… and totally in character. Let’s wait and…”

“Confirmed visual on Loki.”

“Well, that went fast.”

Simultaneously Clint and Tony leaned forward towards the screen, almost knocking their heads together. At first Tony thought that it was false alarm. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t see a dark and moody Goth prince anywhere.

“Holy shit, when did he grow out his beard? I didn’t think he could grow out a beard. He doesn’t even look like Loki anymore… I am so weirded out by this…” Clint shuddered demonstratively while Tony arched an eyebrow. When he finally made out Loki he was equally surprised. The archer was right, this didn’t look much like Loki. The black hair had turned brown, it was cut short and curly. Like Clint had already pointed out, Loki was now having facial hair. A full beard, nicely trimmed.

Nope, didn’t look like Loki. More like human, normal, slightly hipster version of Loki.

“Wait a second… what is he holding in his hand?”

“That’s… a cup of coffee. What the fuck? Who brings coffee to a date in a café?”

It was time to shut up when Loki approached the table Rayne was sitting at. His steps were fast, confident and his face completely blank. Rayne on the other hand began his routine. A shy smile that looked completely genuine and at the same time it didn’t go well with Rayne’s face. “Hey Loki. So glad you…”

“I changed my mind.” Loki talked over him without a care in the world. “I’ve already had coffee.” He raised the cup to make a point. “I’m going to a reading, so I have about 20 minutes. You want to take a walk?”

No, Loki didn’t sound particularly interested and Rayne merely stared at him for five seconds before getting a grip. Trap? Loki being a troll? Did he know what was going on? Or was he just being the son of a bitch that they knew and hated?

A decision had to be made instantly. Sure, one or two agents could follow them, but the main surveillance would be left behind at the café. Didn’t sound like the safest setting and Rayne had to know that. Tony would already be running away.

“Oh, alright. Sure.” Rayne got up from his chair and Loki nodded, barely waiting for him before wandering off again. The SHIELD agent with the worst job in the world rushed after him.

Rubbing one hand over his eyes Clint groaned. “I knew this was a bad idea…” After clearing his throat Clint talked directly into his radio. “We need to get air surveillance on them. We cannot lose them. Constant visual contact is absolutely necessary.”

Tony had to admit that some agents indeed didn’t completely suck at their jobs, because Loki and Rayne disappeared from the screens. They had to rely on secret microphone Rayne was wearing.

“So what reading are you going to later?”

That wasn’t the smoothest way to start a conversation, but what was a secret agent supposed to say on a fake date that the super villain clearly had no interest it.

“Robert Sanderson presents his new book about his theories about dark matter.”

Tony almost fell of his chair hearing that and they were in luck that Rayne wasn’t a complete moron. “You are into physics? I figured that you were more an arts guy… given all the history books.”

“I have lots of different interests.” Loki sounded incredibly bored while saying that and he had to be trolling them, there was no other possibility. He clearly didn’t want to spend any time with Rayne, but it didn’t look like he was luring him into a trap either. No, Tony didn’t get what was going on here.

“Okay. History, physics. What else?”

“Art, rhetoric, chemistry, architecture, music, mathematics… Pretty much anything.” Since they didn’t have a visual Tony could only imagine Loki’s body language. As disinterested as his tone? Seriously, what were they doing here? This couldn’t lead anywhere.

Rayne had to notice it too and he did. He turned out to be a risk taker. Tony had to admit that he was quite good at pulling this off. Playing the guy who was rightfully pissed off at his awful date. “You know you could have just said no. I’m not forcing you to be here. If you don’t want to go out if me, don’t go out with me. Don’t show up and waste my time. I thought you were interesting, but I have better things to do than suffering your obvious passive-aggressiveness… which is not as interesting as you might think.”

Clint and Tony shared a look. Both of them were waiting for the loud bang. Or the chilling sound of a knife cutting through skin and hitting the bone beneath. Neither came. There was only silence. Awkward. By the time that Tony was convinced that Loki had killed Rayne in complete silence they started talking again.

“I don’t think someone has ever called me passive-aggressive. Normally they settle for aggressive.”

“Strangely enough I’d prefer that.”

“Oh, I doubt that.”

“How about you let me decide that?”

Another pause.

“Alright. Maybe you could come along to the reading. What was your name again?”

“Sebastian and you very quickly turn out to be a jerk.”

“Is that a problem?”

“I don’t know yet. We’ll see.”

They continued to talk and Tony thought that he might actually be losing his mind, because now there was actual small talk going on. This was definitely insane. It only got worse when Loki and Rayne actually went to that book reading. During that Tony finally made it to not constantly feel on the edge anymore.

Two hours later they were all back at the headquarters and Fury was all over Rayne. Wanting to hear his report, how he was still alive and if he was already brainwashed. The usual. And of course if he had any useful information. Like where was Loki’s hiding place or what was he planning to do next.

“None of that sort. He claimed to work as an archivist. That’s the most personal thing he told me. We’re having dinner Saturday night.” Rayne mumbled nonchalantly and Tony thanked Clint with all of his heart for saying what had to be said. “Great, get him to take you home. We need his home address. So better wear something revealing.”


	2. I just may like you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> So this is Chapter 2, I hope you have fun with it :)

Tony had to admit that after thinking about it for a little while the whole thing seemed a lot cooler. Sending a secret agent to charm Loki to ultimately get him behind bars. That definitely reminded him of a couple of novels he had read years ago. Admittedly the whole thing would be even more interesting if Rayne were a gorgeous, 25 year old woman. Well, he wasn’t doing too bad with his blue eyes and auburn curls. Who would have thought that Asgardian gods were into this kind of thing?

About 75 % of the time Tony thought that SHIELD’s newest plan was absolutely hilarious and he wanted to double over with laughter. Then harsh reality caught up to him and he had voice the thoughts that wouldn’t leave him alone. “What the fuck are we doing?”

It was the Tony Stark effect, when he was talking everybody else immediately shut up. Nothing new. Now it was a bit awkward, since the entire room had been so focused on Rayne’s briefing. The attention had shifted, was now on Tony who shrugged. “What? How far are we actually going with this? I kind of want to know what our ultimate goal is with this plan… Come on, I can’t be the only one!”

“No, you aren’t. I’m actually glad Tony is asking this, because… I am pretty uncomfortable with this…” Steve joined in and Tony gave him the thumbs-up. All support was welcome.

It only came from Steve though, Natasha and most of all Rayne looked at them like they didn’t understand the questions which had just been asked.

“I don’t see your point. We’re trying to get Loki in a situation where he will be easy to capture. Finding out his hiding spots, learning about his routine, figuring out his weaknesses.” Rayne did a quick some-up, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Yes, but…” Steve cleared his throat and shifted uneasily on his chair. “Tony is right. How far are we willing to go with this? What do we… actually expect you to do?”

Natasha for some reason seemed amused by Steve’s questions. “Captain America clearly will ever be able to do an under-cover mission… you always go as far as the mission needs you to go.”

Okay, Tony needed to get in on that. “What if Loki requires you to suck on his toes?”

“Stark, whatever you are trying to say…”

“Don’t worry, Thor, that was just an example. No idea what your brother is into and I don’t want to know. But hey… maybe I’ll know soon anyway, because Rayne here is going to find out pretty soon…”

Completely unimpressed Rayne sighed. “Mr. Stark, I have been doing undercover work for SHIELD for years. In this job you can’t be squeamish or feel easily uncomfortable. I appreciate your and Captain Rogers’ concern, but it’s unnecessary. I’d like to get back to my preparation now.”

Tony shrugged, but Steve didn’t even try to hide the displeased expression on his face. Rayne had gone back to talking to Thor and Fury and Tony gave up on getting more information out of them. Well, if Rayne had no problem with being used as a piece of meat, why should Tony?

“Is this a regular thing?” Steve muttered under his breath and Natasha smiled at him. “Undercover missions? You wouldn’t believe.”

“No, that much is obvious. More like that kind… Sending someone out to deliberately charm a bad guy to… gain information and arrest them.” Tony had to admit that Steve was almost looking cute like this. Feeling so weirded out that he couldn’t even voice his thoughts.

“For Steve undercover work is growing a beard, speaking with a weird accent and pretending to sell drugs. No Mata Hari stuff.” Tony winked and Steve looked over his shoulder only to see Rayne, Thor and Fury still wrapped up in their conversation. “What I mean is… we aren’t expecting him to sleep with Loki, right?”

Tony huffed because that was such a Captain America question to ask and he was sort of glad that Natasha took over. As dry and simple as possible. “Way too early to tell something like that. Our best case scenario is that Loki will let Rayne into his safe place and show him some weakness that we can exploit.”

Steve nodded vaguely. “That means we’re hoping that Loki opens the door to his apartment and we can storm in there with the entire power of the Avengers and even more agents… I still don’t like this.”

“You don’t have to.” Natasha shrugged carelessly. “Rayne likes to repeat over and over again how much of a good agent he is, but his record is indeed quite impressive. He knows what he is doing and he knows what the job demands of people sometimes.”

Tons of questions were lying on Tony’s tongue. Like how far had Natasha gone during her missions, but he decided that he didn’t really want to know. Steve was only thinking about what it might entail to make goo-goo eyes at Loki, but getting intimate with someone seemed like one of the less traumatizing possibilities. What if Loki’s idea of a perfect date was killing a couple of people with his potential partner? That sounded more like a problem.

“For my part I am more worried that Thor is trying to give Rayne too much information on Loki. If you want too much too soon you’ll only end up being suspicious.”

“Come on, all Rayne has to tell Loki is ‘By the way I hate the Avengers and most of all Thor’ and Loki will be eating out of his hand.” Tony made a dismissive gesture. Only if…

Natasha and Steve kept discussion something while Tony watched Rayne with Thor and Fury. Loki’s future plaything or murder victim was calmly scribbling down notes, speaking up once in a while and Tony asked himself if all agents were like this. With their blank faces and empty eyes. All that pretending that they didn’t have any emotions. Sooner or later all of them would snap, Tony was sure of that. As long as Rayne wasn’t going to do this around Loki they should be fine.

No, this wasn’t going to work out.

 ***

Rayne looked nice, even Steve could see that. Dressed simple but elegantly. It was easy to imagine him going on an actual date like that. Except that he was trying to lure Loki into a trap. Steve had been fighting a stomach ache for two days because of that. Yes, Rayne had agreed to play his part, but Steve couldn’t get rid of the feeling that they were throwing him to the wolves. He was just a guy with no super powers or gimmicks to back him up. Rayne was only here because he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Steve demanded to be as close to the restaurant as possible so he could interfere if necessary and make sure that Rayne was going to be alright. He didn’t even dare to think what might happen if Loki realised that he was being played. Hopefully it wouldn’t go that far.

If Steve’s heart wasn’t going to stop racing how the hell had Rayne to be feeling right now? Things were going down about the same way as last time. They were all in position and half of the guests in the restaurant were SHIELD agents. The only thing they hadn’t dared to do was installing cameras in the restaurant itself. Loki had chosen the place, so it was better to take no risks. Steve still had a nice overview through the mini-cameras on each agent. And on Rayne of course.

The first shock came immediately when Rayne entered the dining room. Although he was 15 minutes early Loki was already there. Sitting at their table, flipping through the menu, looking bored. Steve was so grateful that he wasn’t the one on this mission, he would have no idea what to say.

“Hey, I am not late, am I? Did I make you wait?”

Loki looked up and there was no way Steve would ever get used to that beard. “No, you aren’t. I like to be punctual. Don’t mistake that for over-eagerness.”

“It’s way too soon for you to be that charming. I might not be able to take it.”

“Now that would be a disappointment…” Loki trailed off and Steve was by no means an expert, but he thought that his smirk was more playful than malicious. Which couldn’t really be happening.

Rayne was sitting down and now Loki was perfectly in frame.

“I wasn’t sure you’d come. I didn’t think I made that much of a good impression on you.”

A smirk appeared on Loki’s face and it gave Steve the chills. “Did I make a good impression?”

“Partly. You did fine at the reading. Before that… not so much.”

“I’m curious. Where did I do fine? I was working so hard on being a pain.”

“I liked that you complained about the people talking in the front row. They were incredibly annoying and nobody said something. Anyway do I need to run down the reasons why I think you’re interesting or can I order something to drink first?”

Steve could only admire how easily Rayne talked to Loki, he was cheeky, making believe that he had no idea how Loki was. Or what he was capable of. And Loki was… having fun? Sure, why not? For it was sure hard to wrap one’s head around the fact that even cruel sociopaths enjoyed normal and simple things. That helped them to blend in more easily and for everybody else it was so much harder to figure out what they really were about.

In the meantime Rayne had sat down with Loki and the waiter had shown up to ask them what they wanted to drink. When he was gone Loki remained silent which gave Rayne the opportunity to choose the topic of conversation. Which meant he could fish for information. Steve was curious what he would go for first.

“You’ve been here before?”

Or he would settle for small talk.

“No, but I’ve wanted to try it out for a while now. I am fond of Spanish food.”

“Do you cook?”

Not the most valuable information, but Steve understood what Rayne was trying to do here. Establish sympathy and trust before asking something more personal.

“Yes, I try to change things up, but most of the times I just end up making the few things I like best over and over again.” Loki shrugged and didn’t go into detail. Rayne jumped at the opportunity. “I am completely lost in the kitchen I would probably end up killing myself with a knife or the mixer by accident. So I stay away. Thank god for take-out.”

“What an embarrassing death that would be. Man beats himself to death while trying to fry an egg.” Loki sounded mostly dry, but Steve thought he could hear some amusement.

“Okay, no. A fried egg is pretty much the only thing I can do. Actually I think I can make a decent breakfast. Without pancakes, those are out of my league. I keep on trying because I love them, but I keep failing. Every time I visit my sister she’s making pancakes for me even for lunch. She knows I suck at cooking.”

Steve had to hand it to Rayne, that was a clever way to bring up Thor without directly asking ‘Hey, do you have any siblings?’. Curiously Steve watched Loki’s face. Maybe he was imagining it, but he thought the expression in his eyes had changed. He couldn’t tell if that was a good or a bad sign. It went without saying that Steve expected him to change the topic immediately.

“How many siblings do you have?”

Well, that was a surprise.

“Two sisters. I’m the baby. When I was a child that was annoying as hell, but as a teen not so bad, because I had somebody to drive me everywhere I wanted to go. You?”

Loki’s lips twitched to form a smile. “I have a brother and he never did anything nice for me.”

Steve scowled at this insolence. Even in this setting Loki couldn’t stop himself from badmouthing Thor. What else to expect? Maybe that was why Loki was here in the first place. This way he had someone who would actually listen to his lies.

“Really? That’s… uhm…”

“Let’s talk about something else.”

Another surprise. So Loki wasn’t going to jump at the opportunity to talk trash?

“Fine. What kind of name is Loki actually?”

Steve sucked in a breath. This was going too fast and too careless. Or would the average person actually ask that? Who was Steve to know?

Loki quirked an eyebrow, but if Steve had to put money on it, he would say that he was still amused.

“What kind of name is Sebastian?”

“A Christian name. Which Loki clearly isn’t. Are you part of some Norwegian cult? Because that’s definitely a thing you should bring up during a first date.” Rayne was doing a great job at making it sound as if he was having fun.

And the most unnerving thing about it was that Loki seemed to be into it. Leaning back in his chair Loki nodded casually. “You got me. I am Level C member. You get to choose your new name after an initiation rite where you spend three days and nights without food and without clothing in a forest. If you succeed to spend this time entirely silent and after you’ve built a temple with your bare hands you will be rewarded with three ongoing nights of debauchery. Then you sell your soul for enteral life and amazing good looks. Exhibit A.” Loki gestured at himself. “That’s about it… Oh, right and we melt if we eat seafood. Don’t ask me why, it’s in the contract.”

Steve blinked in confusion, but he heard Rayne’s lithe chuckle. “Sounds amazing. Where can I sign up?”

“Oh, weren’t you aware? This is a job interview.”

“How am I doing?”

“You are a little too excited about the debauchery part.”

“That’s the only reason anyone would join any cult! Apart from the brain washing… as long as there isn’t any kool aid involved – I am in.”

One second later Steve was witnessing a miracle. Loki was laughing. Alright, that had happened numerous times before. Normally though Loki was maniacally while talking about how much pleasure it brought him to cause other people’s misery. This was different. Loki was laughing because he thought Rayne was funny. Nothing mean-spirited about it. Steve thought it deeply unsettling.

“I will get you the application forms.”

From thereon Steve had problems keeping up with what was happening. Maybe because it was surprisingly normal. An understatement, it was going great. Their conversations seemed easy and entertaining. Pretty normal and unexciting things so far. Rayne perfectly stuck to his made up profile, claiming to work a boring office job and Loki subtly avoided giving up much information about himself. Okay, he stated that he was a historian who worked in an archive, but Rayne had already told them that. They spent almost 20 minutes though talking about the technical aspects of that job and it turned out that Loki at least seemed to know what he was talking about. No matter how unlikely it seemed SHIELD should definitely look up if there were actually any archivists working in New York who called himself Loki.

Eventually, after three courses, and a quite extravagant bill that Loki paid for things got more interesting again. “How about we get some drinks? My treat, I can’t let you get away with paying for dinner alone.”

“It’s late. You can buy me a drink another time.” Loki declined, but he did it in a quite an affectionate way. Or at least Steve interpreted it this way.

It was the time for a new camera angle since Loki and Rayne left the restaurant, giving the agents positioned outside something to do. Like this Steve got a good glance at Rayne who walked alongside Loki. Not far though.

“This is my car.” Rayne stopped and the hidden agent was too far way to make out their facial expression. Nevertheless Steve could clearly see that Rayne made no attempt to get into his car.

“Good night then. Get home safely.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Rayne still wasn’t moving and Loki was just standing in front of him. Probably already suffering from boredom. Then the situation changed again and Steve held his breath when Rayne took half a step towards Loki. “I really enjoyed tonight.”

There was no way he was going to try that. Absolutely impossible.

“Surprisingly I found myself having a good time too.”

“You really are a jerk.” Steve waited for the inevitable bloodshed when Rayne leaned forward and actually had the guts to kiss Loki on the cheek.

Nobody died though. Rayne wished Loki a good night, then got into his car and drove off. Loki was still standing there, so now the game was really on. For less than a minute. Loki walked around the restaurant and since the agents had to keep their distance they lost him immediately. Teleportation was indeed a pain.

 ***

“You, my friend, are my new hero. Teach me. I am willing to learn.”

Rayne obviously had gotten used to Tony’s theatrics and merely wrinkled his nose the tiniest bit at the comment. “I am sorry that I cannot appreciate your joke, Mr. Stark. But I’ve just spent three hours on the job. I am rather exhausted.”

Tony dismissed him with a casual gesture and dropped on the chair opposite of him. “You got to eat great Spanish food in a restaurant with a ridiculous waiting list and fucking exquisite wine. I wouldn’t be complaining.”

“I also spend dinner in the presence of mass murderer who might realise any second that my interest in him is fake and only a means to an end. I have to remember my new persona all the time, choose my words carefully and make it all seem completely natural. So no, it’s not the idea of my ideal Friday night.” Rayne summed up dryly and for the first time Steve thought he could see genuine weariness. It was kind of shameful that Steve hadn’t considered how mentally exhausting this task had to be for Rayne. Done with his time with Loki and immediately back to SHIELD for the discussion of what had happened.

Rayne was taking a sip from his glass of water as Fury waltzed into the room and sat down at the table. “Good work, Rayne. We haven’t got any substantial information yet, but Loki seemed fairly at ease. Anything you want to bring up at the beginning? Something you noticed that the cameras maybe didn’t capture?”

Despite shaking his head Rayne started to talk. “I think he was comfortable around me. The way he talked about his work… either he is putting as much work into his cover as I am or he really has worked as an archivist. When I talked about the relationship to my sisters he was kneading his fingers. He didn’t do that any other time. That stood out to me…”

“I guess I remember Loki doing so.” Thor added pensively. “It was a nervous gesture. Whenever he felt uneasy.”

Tony leaned back comfortably and shrugged. “What a surprise. Talk about a healthy sibling relationship makes Loki uncomfortable.”

“During the rest of the dinner I thought that he enjoyed himself. Take my opinion for what it’s worth, but I do think he likes me.”

“It’s Loki, he doesn’t like anyone.” Clint muttered under his breath and Thor protested. “That’s not true. Back… when his mind was still in one piece Loki could be affectionate. Towards friends and family.”

That only had Clint shrugging in indifference. In the meantime Natasha was taking over the conversation. “I agree that the mission as a success since Loki seems to be falling for the scheme and there were no violent incidences, but the information we gained tonight is still marginal.”

Not for the first time Steve wondered if there was some sort of rivalry going on between Natasha and Rayne since she was so critical of him and his work. Maybe that was a thing between agents who were doing undercover work. Who knew?

Rayne audibly huffed in annoyance. “What information did you expect me to gain? His home address? Credit rating? I am trying to establish trust. He was very reluctant to talk about himself the entire evening. Also Loki is obviously too smart to fall for the basics. I am going for something a bit more complex here.”

Natasha was about to reply something but Fury raised his hand. “We are not going to discuss strategy right now. What we’re doing right now is working just fine. Sadly Loki teleported away, so we still have no idea where his hiding spot is. I want you to focus on that, Rayne. In whatever way you think will work out best. Suggest an outdoor activity and suggest picking him up at home, something like that.”

Rayne nodded slowly. “I doubt that he would invite me to his actual hiding spot.”

“No, but it’s a start and as long as it’s his place, it’s still valuable to us.”

Tony raised his hand and Fury groaned. “We’re not in school, Stark. What do you want to say?”

“Like I said, Rayne’s my hero now, because Loki clearly is into him, but what’s going to happen if Loki indeed invites him to his place? Are you going to fuck him?”

Steve almost had a coughing fit while Rayne didn’t bat an eyelid. “If the mission goes down according to plan there will be no need to go that far.”

“Then how far will you need to go?”

“Stark…”

“No, really! At which point are we going to say ‘Perfect, got him!’. I want to know.” Tony was stern on this and Fury sighed another time. “What we need is a routine. To know where Loki will be before he gets there and the place he might flee to. Because that’s when he can get him. If agent Rayne becomes part of that routine, then we’d be in a perfect position.”

Tony laughed in strange amusement. “I hate to break it to you, Nick, but most people only include other people in their daily routines if they work with them or if they fuck them.”

“Sometimes that’s part of the job, Stark.” Natasha pointed out with a blank face and Steve couldn’t listen to that anymore. “Well, it shouldn’t be.”

“Captain Rogers, Mr. Stark, while I appreciate your concern I can assure you that it’s unwarranted. I am capable of dealing with any kind scenario this mission might confront me with. It’s unfortunate that the different possibilities are making you uncomfortable, but it’s me who has to deal with them, so your sensitivities ultimately don’t matter.”

 ***

The next day Rayne sent Loki a text to ask him for a lunch date close to Central Park, so they could go for a walk afterwards. Loki agreed but suggested another day. Which turned out to be quite significate since he broke into the Museum of Natural History and stole some artefacts the day Rayne had wanted to meet him.

A few people got hurt but nobody was killed, so at least there was that. It also reminded everyone who they were dealing with and Steve really didn’t envy Rayne.

One day later they met up for their date and Rayne was still doing a good job at pretending. He greeted Loki with a kiss on the cheek. “Hey, how are you doing?”

“Perfectly fine. I had a great day yesterday.”

That bastard…

Rayne didn’t even flinch. “Then I hope today is going to be even better.”

“We’ll see about that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So couple of questions:
> 
> 1) What do think is going to happen between Loki and the agent?  
> 2) What do you think should happen?


	3. I just know what to say

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> Third and forth date and Steve really doesn't like any of this ;)

“I’ve changed plans. How about we have a picnic instead of lunch at a café? I’ve got everything we need in the bag pack.” Rayne was smiling, by now Tony was pretty sure he could tell it by his voice. Next to him Thor was shaking his head. “He’s not going to like it. Loki likes it when things are comfortable. He would prefer a fancy dinner 100 times over this.”

“Wait and see, pointbreak. It’s always a question of who you are doing it with…” Tony shrugged, he wasn’t as doubtful. Until now Loki had been pretty much okay with everything that Rayne had suggested. Also it was a sunny day – who would say no to a picnic?

Loki was raising an eyebrow and maybe Thor was right, because he didn’t look totally excited. “Sitting on the ground between little kids and dogs that should be kept on leashes?”

“Don’t tell me you’re too classy for a picnic. Such a thing doesn’t exist. Believe me, you wanna taste the stuff that I brought along.”

“So I am not really having a choice, because you’ve already made the decision and you’re just informing me about it.”

“Pretty much. Come on, if you don’t like it you’ll have the perfect opportunity to whine.”

Loki’s eyebrow was still up high, but Tony knew how somebody looked who was going to agree to something and then act like he was being generous. “I might just do that.”

Wonderful, so at least they were going to get good surveillance for the entire meeting. Tony was ready for a long day sitting in front of a television screen. Granted after Loki and Rayne already meeting up for the third time the initial nervousness and tension was gone. Sure, nobody was ever going to watch this super relaxed, because Rayne was always just one mistake away from getting killed.

For now Loki seemed perfectly docile though as they got to the spot Rayne had picked out. Well, that SHIELD had picked out and every person within the radius of a kilometre was an agent. Anyway if Tony ever wanted to take one of his dates on a picnic, he was going to ask SHIELD to put him something together. The snacks Rayne had brought with him were amazing. A box of delicious looking potato salad, caprese sandwiches, a Spanish tortilla, a glass of mango chutney and half an onion tart. Tony’s mouth was already watering.

“I thought you couldn’t cook.” Loki gave Rayne a sceptical look and the agent laughed, giving him a soft shrug. “I can’t, but I know a lot of good stores and restaurants. Come on, taste something.”

Loki grabbed one of the sandwiches, took a bite and his expression told Tony very clearly that he was missing out. “It is quite delicious.”

Rayne beamed and reached for a slice of the tart. “So you said you had a great day yesterday. How so?”

Oh, that was good. Some actual information. Like why the fuck Loki would break into the Museum of Natural History. Loki obviously made himself comfortable, sitting on the blanket in lotus style, chewing on the sandwich. “I am working on a project and made quite some progress yesterday.”

“Okay, what kind of project? Does it have to do with your work at the archive?”

“Not for work but work related. I’m doing research on the history of my own family. Creating a detailed family tree and I thought some documents with new information yesterday.”

Tony sat up straight and shot Thor a glance. “Can that be?”

“What?” The Asgardian sounded utterly confused and Tony hated it when he had to slow down and actually explain things. “Is it possible that Loki stole something from the museum that has to do with you and your family? Or Asgard?”

Thor frowned deeply and actually seemed to think. “I don’t know. Nothing related to my family, but over thousands of years a lot of magical artefacts ended up on Midgard from all over the universe. Some of them could be traced back to Asgard. Don’t we know what has been stolen? I thought those were merely some stones decorated with Native American art? That doesn’t seem like they could be linked to Asgard.”

“Sure, but with Loki it’s never the easy route. Guess we should have SHIELD sending us the info on that. Hey, tech-guy! You heard me? Make that happen. Shit, now we missed something…”

Tony tried to concentrate again on the picnic going on.

“… of time to search that stuff?”

“Kind of, but I am used to go through tons of documents. I am very patient and thorough.”

Rayne hummed softly. “Guess you’d have to be. So have you found anything interesting yet? Are you distantly related to the king of England? Or something creepy like your parents being cousins?”

Tony’s eyes were glued to Loki’s face. The Asgardian seemed strangely calm, not like he was going to through a fit like any other time somebody talked about his family. Rayne was definitely walking on thin ice here.

“No, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned out to all come from a long line of inbred circus freaks.”

Now that was harsh and Rayne didn’t know how to react, so he gaped. Which made it seem all the more real. “You have to help me, because I am really not sure how I am supposed to react to this? Laugh? Maybe? I can’t tell.”

Tony could tell that Thor was one second away from screaming in protest, so he elbowed the big guy in the ribs and kept focused on Loki. Who opened his mouth and Tony knew that a string of profanities was going to come out. Strangely enough Loki suddenly pressed his lips back together and his eyes darted away from Rayne for a second. What? What was going on?

“I don’t have a good relationship with my parents. I was adopted but I got never told that. I found out by accident, but it made perfect sense. My parents always preferred my brother to me. Their biological child. So I am not on good turns with them.” Loki muttered and then took a bite from his sandwich. Tony was by no way an expert, but to him it looked like he was trying to busy himself, so he didn’t have to say anything else. Or to stop himself from saying anything else. Who knew?

Tony wasn’t going to mention this to Thor, however Loki was putting on a hell of a show. Everything about that little scene had seemed genuine. That didn’t mean it was true, it was the way Loki felt about it.

Rayne better knew how to take advantage of that, because it was the very first time Loki showed some fucking emotion. Or Natasha was never going to let this go.

“I’m sorry to hear that. That’s a horrible thing to do… but… are you looking into your biological family or the one that raised you?”

“My biological family.”

“Are you in contact with them?”

“No and I don’t think I want to. Actually I don’t think I want to continue talking about this.” Loki stated softly and Tony wondered when this observation had turned into a drama. Still there was a good chance of turning this into a romance. If you were a player.

“Sure, of course.” Rayne was quick to respond. “But thanks for telling me. I appreciate that.”

Good one there.

Loki nodded, but he didn’t seem eager to keep the conversation going. It was up to Rayne. “Are you always like this?”

The question definitely caught Loki’s attention and judging by his expression Tony thought that it also confused him. “Am I always how?”

“I don’t know actually. You are a wild card. One second you are a complete jerk, then quite charming, then almost sulky and then snarky, playful. Which one is real? Or are you always like this?”

The perfect timing to go through another personality change. A smirk made its way onto Loki’s face. Genuine amusement and some recognition. “How I am varies from moment to moment.”

“Psychopath…” Tony coughed and Thor shot him a dark glance. Really? Loki was talking shit about his family and Thor was still trying to protect his little brother.

Anyway, Tony’s admiration for Rayne was growing by the second. That guy really knew how to sweet talk a crazy person. “What does it say about me that I think that’s really interesting… rather than concerning?”

Damn, that flirty tone. Tony should have brought his notebook. Was he not taking this seriously enough?

“That you don’t have a good sense of self-preservation.” Loki was having a good time, that much was obvious.

“Or that I absolutely hate being bored. You are anything but boring…” Things had picked up some speed or at least Rayne was getting bolder. Why not? It was their third date. Steve was definitely very uncomfortable right now, wherever he was. Thor was doing pretty well so far.

Loki didn’t answer, he merely kept on grinning and then finished eating his sandwich. Was he fishing for compliments here? For Tony it was hard to tell, but as long as Loki had fun it was good for their mission.

The conversation kept going and Tony was shocked to hear that Loki sounded like an actual human being. Like somebody who was actually living on this planet and doing other things than making up plans all day to destroy cities and kill people.

“Favourite Beyoncé song?”

“I’m not really a Beyoncé fan.”

“Why? You’re more of a Taylor Swift guy?”

“Oh please.”

“But Beyoncé made one of the greatest music videos of all time!”

Thor’s eyebrows were almost hitting his hairline as he was searching for help. “What are they talking about?”

“They are not talking, they are making outdated pop culture references… which is kind of amazing, because I didn’t think Loki would get any of that… or even know who Beyoncé is.”

Thor’s eyes grew ridiculously wide and Tony patted his shoulder. It was kind of cute. The big blonde Asgardian guy had no idea what was going on while Rayne and Loki had already moved on to movies. The conversation also turned significantly less gay when Loki stated that his favourite movie was Die Hard. Which was insane.

All good things had to come to an end, right? Like this picnic. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

Loki tilted his head and admittedly he looked kind of pretty with the curls framing his face. “Is there something special that I should be doing?”

Well, Loki hadn’t been lying. With him it varied from moment to moment.

Rayne was still buttering him up. “Because I’d like to go dancing tomorrow night and I’d like to take you along. So when can I pick you up?”

Tony leaned forward, not wanting to miss Loki’s every reaction. Come on, let us know where you live. We just want your home address.

“10 o’clock. I’ll meet you at the club. I’ll send you the name.”

Damn, Loki really liked to take charge, didn’t he? Rayne only had the time to mumble a “Yeah, sure” before Loki kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks for the picnic. I had a good time.”

There, date was over. Loki walked away, opening the chase. The park was filled with agents, so at least one them should be able to tail him, right? It took two minutes for Loki to disappear behind a tree and being gone. Fuck teleportation.

 ***

“Good job, Rayne. We were able to get quite a lot of information today.” Fury was in a good mood which made him even scarier than usual.

Everybody seemed to be content with how things had gone down today, except for Thor. The blond had clearly trouble wrapping his head around what had happened. “I don’t see how we learned anything.”

Tony’s hand shot up. “Can I explain? Please, please, let me explain. Why am I even asking? I am the only one who can explain. No offence, Cap, but I am sure you didn’t get half of what they were saying.”

Steve grimaced but he didn’t protest. Tony cleared his throat and took a look at his notes. “Loki knows who Kayne West is. Mind blown. He is into classical music and calls Grunge an over emotional attack on the ear. He has a favourite movie. He knows who is the governor of New York. He knows the difference between Nintendo and PlayStation. Also he made references to H.P. Lovecraft, because why the hell wouldn’t he. Even if it’s all bullshit, Loki knows about all these things. Which means he actually has to spend a lot of time here and he clearly not only uses it to blow shit up. Call me crazy, but he actually might have a real life here.”

“I don’t see how you come to this conclusion.” Thor stated and Tony sighed. Fortunately Clint came to his aid. “No offence, Thor, but your little brother is clearly more in touch with our culture than you. Which probably means that he sometimes goes out and talks to people. Or at least he is watching the news. He is aware of what is going on in the world. I know this sounds crazy, but he might have a social life… or he spends all day on the computer reading up on things. What it all comes down to – there is a good chance that he actually has a real place somewhere in the city. Also it makes appealing to him much easier if he has some real interests.”

Thor nodded, but Tony could clearly see that he still had no idea what they were talking about. Perhaps because Loki definitely knew more about Earth than Thor at this point.

“Aside from that Loki clearly showed his sore spot. His relationship to his family.” Natasha pointed out and directly addressed Rayne who had been strangely quiet until now. “You have to capitalize on that. It will be the easiest way to get close and to manipulate him.”

In the conference room Rayne always looked like a total different person than when on his fake dates with Loki. Perhaps that was a spy thing. To have a completely blank stare all the time when you weren’t on a job. “I am well aware of that. Already working on it.”

“I’m still amazed that he agreed to go dancing with you. I can’t really picture that.” Tony shook his head. Loki in a club. That didn’t sound right.

Fury shot Tony a glance. “The plan isn’t to stay at the club very long, Stark.”

“What? You are already whoring him out?”

“Tony!” Steve tried to sound offended, but Tony could tell that he actually agreed with him. They were setting up the perfect scenario for a down and dirty hook-up. A bit old-fashioned, but still classier than simply asking Loki to Netflix and chill.

“I can take care of myself. The objective is to find out where he lives and I am going to do that.” Rayne seemed perfectly cool and the slightest bit detached. Sometimes wondered what SHIELD was putting in their spies’ drinks.

Fury was about to end the meeting when Rayne spoke up again. “I would like to ask Thor a couple of things. So I will be better able to push Loki’s buttons.”

Still a bit uncomfortable Thor nodded. “What do you want to know?”

“How much of what he said about your family is true?

Another proof that Rayne had some balls, because Thor’s face instantly turned into that enraged Wiking expression. “Are you saying that…”

“I am not saying anything. Loki told me that he didn’t know about his adoption and that your parents favoured you. What about it is true? I need to know if I want to manipulate him.”

“Our parents never favoured anyone. Loki and me were just very different. He had trouble connecting with our father, but we were equally loved and included. Our mother taught him magic and he wasn’t told about his adoption, because it didn’t matter. He is their son and my brother.” Thor sounded so confident and convinced it almost made Tony uneasy for a reason that he couldn’t name.

Rayne slightly arched his eyebrow. “Loki clearly doesn’t see it like that.”

“My brother has been known for twisting the truth.”

“No, you don’t get it. For Loki it’s the truth. It doesn’t matter if your parents treated you perfectly equally. He doesn’t feel like they did.” Rayne tapped his pen against the notepad in front of him. “How did he find out about being adopted? How did everybody’s reaction look like? What was said?”

Honestly, Tony wasn’t very interested in Thor’s family drama, but he totally understood why this stuff was important for Rayne’s work. He also noticed how Steve screwed up his face, mildly disgusted by the entire situation. Sometimes Tony wondered if the blonde was even aware of what Natasha was doing for a living before the Avengers.

Thor was telling his little tale and Tony’s thoughts wandered off to his newest update on Jarvis. His train of thought only got interrupted by Rayne summing up all that Thor had said by reading from his notes. “Alright, Loki found out by accident that he wasn’t Asgardian while fighting members of the race he actually belongs to. He confronted his father about it, but they didn’t get to actually talk about it, because your father fell into… Odinsleep… whatever that is supposed to mean. Your father and Loki never talked again after that. You saw Loki again during the invasion and told him that his heritage doesn’t matter. How long did that conversation last?”

After thinking for about a couple of seconds Thor said “Two minutes, but we talked about other things too.”

Rayne released a long breath of air and wrote something down. “So you never really talked about it.”

“Yes, we did! I told him that he is still my brother. That blood doesn’t mean anything.”

“Okay, but what his opinion on it?”

“He was angry.”

Tony couldn’t help but moan and rolled his eyes. Rayne remained professional though. “Yes, thank you. That much is obvious. But what did he say? How did it make him feel? Why was he angry? Because he was being lied at? Or because your family didn’t treat it like a big deal?”

Thor’s mouth dropped open but now words came out. Seemingly content Rayne nodded and made another note. “I think that’s going to be very helpful. Thank you, Thor.”

The meeting was over and Tony was just glad to go home. Next date and a probably sleepless night was coming around pretty soon.

 ***

_Rox – 10:30. See you_

They even got to read the text messages. Granted, Loki had not written anything personal, but this entire thing was getting harder and harder to stomach. All this sneaking around and the use of personal information started to upset Steve. Sure, Loki was a terrible and most of all dangerous person, he needed to be put away. But did they have to lead him on this way?

Then again nothing else had worked until now which didn’t make the situation easier.

They’ve had enough time to set everything up, 15 agents were positioned all over the club and all of the Avengers were outside in the observation vans. This time it was Steve and Natasha, watching Rayne on the monitors. He was sitting at the bar, sipping on a cocktail, waiting for Loki.

“He looks good. They made him look pretty.”

Steve raised an eyebrow at Natasha’s comment. “He has always looked good. What are you talking about?”

Natasha didn’t respond and Steve felt like he was missing some information. Then it downed on him that SHIELD was counting on Rayne seducing Loki tonight and that really didn’t feel right.

Loki showed up 10 minutes late, but he did show up. And he also looked good. Wearing a green jacket, black pants and white shirt. They saw him approaching before Rayne noticed him and Steve gaped when Loki slid down on the chair next to Rayne, his hand brushing over the other’s shoulder. “Am I late?”

“Yeah, but I’m starting to get used to that.” Turning around Rayne smiled and kissed Loki on the cheek. “But you’re still late, so I get to decide what we’re going to do and I want to dance. Come on.”

Rayne grabbed Loki’s hand, jumped up from his chair and pulled him onto the dancefloor.

For the next 20 minutes Steve and Natasha did nothing but watching the two of them dance. Which was shockingly easy to look at. Actually Steve’s mouth dropped open at the sight. Loki knew how to dance and he looked like he was having fun. Lots of fun. The dancing itself was pretty tame, these first 20 minutes were quite relaxed.

Eventually they returned to the bar, Rayne ordered both of them a beer. “The next time you make me wait you won’t get off that easily.”

“I might just be curious to find out what you might do…” Loki was grinning and Rayne looked just the slightest bit taken aback. He recovered quite quickly. “Is that so?”

Putting his glass back down Loki leaned against the bar, running his eyes over Rayne in the most obvious way. A smile lingering on his lips. “Yes, because I can see you holding back.” His hand came up and a split second Steve thought that Loki was going to touch Rayne’s forehead, doing some kind of magic. Except that Loki didn’t touch Rayne’s skin, instead he brushed Rayne’s curls aside. “There is so much going on behind your eyes… I’d like to slip inside and pull it all out.”

That was Loki talking, soft and melodic, his fingers still grasping Rayne’s hair and Steve’s heart was racing. It was a threat. Right? It could be a threat.

Rayne was staring at Loki, clearly thrown off his game. Steve was curious what he was going to say to get the situation back under con-

“Woah!”

Nothing was being said. Rayne lunched forward and kissed Loki. On the lips. Fiercely and with passion. Steve couldn’t think of something else that had ever made him feel so uncomfortable. Until seeing Loki’s arms going around Rayne’s hips, kissing him back.

Next to him Natasha hummed with approval. “Here we go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what's going to happen from here?  
> Does Loki know?  
> And most important - Is Rayne going to see Loki's apartment tonight? ;)


	4. I just won't let go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> So the lovely agent kissed Loki - where do things go from here? :D

“Could you please stop chewing so loudly? It’s obnoxious.” Clint muttered under his breath and to Tony it was obvious that he just wanted to say something that wasn’t related to the guys sucking face on the screen. Of course Tony needed to be a jerk about it. “Do you think Loki is a good kisser? It looks like he is a good kisser. Must have got a lot of practice. Maybe we should have been surveilling clubs to find him…”

“Can you please stop? I’m trying to not acknowledge that one of our agents is sticking his tongue into Loki’s mouth. Now I can only think about how much SHIELD is probably paying him, because it’s definitely not enough.” Clint grumbled, his eyes anywhere in the van but not on the surveillance screen.

“Well… now that you’ve mentioned it…” Tony didn’t have the same problem, he found it easy to look at them. They were physically pleasing. The shay morality was another issue, but Tony wasn’t going to get into that. “Kissing Loki isn’t the part that should freak him out… more like manipulating and lying to him, because that could get him killed.”

“I never understood why anyone would want to do undercover work… Especially that kind.” Gesturing blindly at the screen Clint definitely referred to how couldn’t get any closer to Loki. With his clothes still on.

“I guess there is a difference if you get to make out with an attractive demi-god or with an overweight Russian drug dealer. Wait, is Rayne even queer? Cause if not, Fury’s got to give him a raise.” Tony let out an appreciative whistle and Clint cleared his throat. “Undercover agents are whatever the mission needs them to be. They are chameleons. Or they should be.”

“Fuck, are they still making out?”

Yes, they were. Heavily. Right now Rayne was closer to Loki than anyone of them ever had been and Tony seriously doubted that anyone wanted to be in that position. Nope, he could think of more pleasant things than twisting his fingers into Loki’s jacket and risking getting decapitated any second.

It took another half minute until they finally parted and Tony made a mental note to ask Rayne about details on Loki’s skills.

“That is a really pleasant way to shut you up…”

One of the agents had to be really close, because Tony had a perfect view of Rayne’s sweet smile. To emphasize his point Rayne leaned in again and more or less only brushed his lips over Loki’s. Tony swallowed softly, because that really looked genuine and quite lovingly. Alright, that was almost too much. For Tony, for Rayne it was the perfect move.

Loki was grinning and that should give anyone the chills. “I don’t like it when someone wants me to be silent. For whatever reason…”

“Yeah, I realised that you loved to hear yourself talk… I like most of it too. That doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate you being silent for a moment.” Rayne leaned into Loki, his hand reaching for Loki’s and he tilted his head with a very clear intention. Loki granted him the request and kissed Rayne again. Way more relaxed than a moment ago.

Oh god, they really had a SHIELD agent kissing Loki.

“I know I should have asked that way sooner, but is Rayne carrying a weapon? Please tell me he is and please tell me that it’s somewhere where Loki can’t find it.”

Clint shook his head. “There is a good possibility that he might have to take his clothes off. So no.”

“Damn that guy must have balls of steel…”

That kiss ended a lot sooner than the first one. Their fingers were entwined and Rayne’s lips were against Loki’s cheek. “Although I couldn’t stop thinking about this since I’ve seen you in the bookstore… I admit that I thought it would play out differently. Like with your hand around my neck when I try to kiss you.”

Yep, Tony was willing to admit that Rayne knew how to use words to his advantage. A whisper with just the right amount of flirtiness to make it sound sexy. There was no time to dwell on that thought, but Tony guess that Loki appreciated it too, judging by his hum. “Like this?”

Tony jolted and Clint almost jumped up to his feet when Loki’s hand shot forward and wrapped its fingers around Rayne’s throat. Instinctively Tony reached for his glove, but Clint quickly grabbed his wrist while speaking into his radio. “All agents, stand down! No interference!”

“What?” Tony couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What are you…”

“Look!” Clint gestured at the screen and Tony’s stomach sank when he saw something that had happened to himself. That vicious, unlimited strength was something that Tony remembered all too vividly. Loki could break Rayne’s neck within a second if he wanted to.

Rayne knew that too, but whoever had trained him had done a good job, the agent wasn’t panicking or freaking out. Both of his hands were closing around Loki’s wrist, making no effort to pull him away. Nothing about his face would ever suggest that Rayne felt threatened or uneasy. No, his eyes were staring at Loki, wide but not afraid.

“Yes, like that.” Rayne whispered back and Tony released a shaky breath when his fears weren’t confirmed. Instead of causing bloodshed Loki went for something way less horrific, but still disturbing. They were kissing, again, with Loki’s hand around Rayne’s throat.

Clint lowered the radio and made a noise of relief while distorting his face in disgust at the same time. “You’re right, Rayne needs to get a raise… Should have known that Loki is fucked up in all kind of ways.”

Tony wasn’t going to feel relieved now. Not before Loki’s hand was gone from that very vulnerable place. He wouldn’t let go for the entirety of the kiss and then his fingers would still hook around the collar of Rayne’s shirt.

“Okay, actually not quite like that, but I’m not complaining.” Rayne smiled and nipped at Loki’s jawline. He definitely didn’t have any reservations about touching Loki. That would be a real obstacle in this job.

“Me neither…. Let’s get you a new drink.”

During the next 15 minutes Tony managed to relax a little bit which meant that he still felt like sitting on a bed of nails. Loki and Rayne had cocktails and the kisses wouldn’t stop. There was no way to play down the weirdness. Inwardly groaning Tony realised that it would go on like this now. That border had been crossed. Two people that had started to make out wouldn’t suddenly stop now. So there was no way to get out of this weirdness.

“Can’t they get on with it, so I can feel less like a creep? Damn, that sounded wrong.” Tony rocked back and forth impatiently, hoping that this observation was going to end fast. What an upsetting turn of events.

“It takes as much time as it takes…” Clint mumbled absently, but Tony just felt that they were thinking the same thing.

Rayne was being careful, Tony got that, but after you started making out in a club on your forth date, there was only one way to go. Oh, this was going to be bad.

But inevitable. After being glued to Loki’s side for about half an hour Rayne obviously decided to get this show on the road. Once more he reached for Loki’s hand to lace their fingers together while brushing his lips over Loki’s cheek. “So how are my chances of you taking me home tonight?”

Okay, the direct approach had worked before. Why not?

Loki smiled, almost as if Rayne had made some amusing statement. His free hand travelled to Rayne’s lower back, Loki turned his head stole another kiss. That man was clearly enjoying himself, but why shouldn’t he? Tony knew how he would react.

“About 0%.”

Now that was crushing.

Rayne pulled back slightly and actually pouted. “Don’t tell me you have an incredibly appointment early in the morning.”

Grinning like a shark Loki nodded. “Actually yes…”

“See, now I can’t tell if you’re hard to get or if you are trying to piss me off… or maybe both of it.”

“I’ve got indeed some rather important business to take care of. Early business.”

Tony turned to Clint. “That’s got to be some shady business.”

“That sounds like you want to get rid of me…” Rayne had that perfect balance that Tony hadn’t thought possible. Teasing, flirty, but still real and upset enough without sounding annoying. That had to work on every man.

Loki clicked his tongue. “No, it sounds like I have business to attend to tomorrow morning… “

“I’ll maybe forgive you for this if you take me for breakfast.”

“Still too early. I could take you out to dinner.”

Rayne made thinking face and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You could, but I don’t know if I’m still going to be waiting then.”

Laughing softly Loki pulled him back close, wrapping his arms around Rayne’s hips. “I got a feeling that you will… Or were you planning on going home with me and then never showing up again.”

“To be honest… no. Until now you seem far too interesting for that.”

Loki hummed contently and Rayne sighed in defeat. “Okay, dinner. Tomorrow night. 8 o’clock and it better be fancy. Also I hope you have some really important business going on.”

Licking his lips Loki nodded. “Oh, I promise… “ In what looked like a gentle gesture Loki brushed back Rayne’s curls and began a new kiss. One that seemed more engaging than the ones before but also sweeter. Like Loki was apologizing.

Eventually he pulled back and nuzzled Rayne’s neck. “By the way what’s your favourite colour?”

Taken aback Rayne thought for a second. “Uhm… green, I guess.”

For a second Tony thought that Loki had a somewhat dreamy look on his face. “That’s going to look marvellous.”

 ***

Steve felt completely drained although he hadn’t done anything. Watching Rayne in such intimate situations with Loki felt all kinds of wrong. He couldn’t even think about the moment when Loki had grabbed Rayne by the throat. Natasha had had to physically hold Steve back from fucking up the entire mission.

Loki had gone home. Kissed Rayne good, promised him to pick him up for dinner and then he was gone. Outside of the club he had disappeared into thin air and Rayne stayed for another half hour and then drove to the apartment they had set up for him if Loki ever wanted to see his place. They considered it too risky for Rayne to return to the headquarters tonight, so they had to settle for a video conference.

All of the Avengers and Fury around a table, Rayne in front of his computer, downing an entire bottle of water. Was he trying to wash Loki’s taste out of his mouth?

“Good work, agent Rayne.” Fury didn’t sound as happy as the day before, but that probably had something to do with them knowing that Loki was playing some kind of attack tomorrow. “He is still reluctant though, you will have to get a better emotional connection. I thought you wanted to use the information on his family.”

Rayne took another big gulp from the bottle before putting it down. “It wasn’t the right setting. He was in a flirty mood when he arrived and I got this vibe when we danced… I thought he would react positively if I kissed him and he did. There was no way to bring up such a touchy subject. I might try over dinner…”

“Alright, I trust you on knowing what the best approach is, but we need at least some vague direction, a hint where he is hiding. That’s all you are concentrating on tomorrow.”

Steve knew that he was staring at Fury with his mouth open and he couldn’t listen to this any longer. “What are we really letting him go there tomorrow? Fury, you can’t be serious?”

Eyebrows were raised at him. Three pairs of them. Fury, Natasha and Rayne himself. Three and a half if you counted Thor. “Have you any objections to the mission, Captain Rogers?” Fury didn’t bother to hide his annoyance and it rubbed Steve the wrong way. Hadn’t he seen what had happened only three hours ago? “Actually yes, sir. I don’t feel comfortable sending Agent Rayne into another one of these situations again. Not when Loki has already laid his hands on him.”

“I doubt that the agent was in actual danger.” Thor replied easily and Steve couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “How do you mean that?”

Thor made a helpless gesture. “I recognized his way of talking and the look on his face. There was nothing threatening about it. For him it was a game. He wanted to see how far agent Rayne was going to let him go. If he was able to handle it… he passed.”

“I am sorry, but that is all pretty vague. We’re sending him in alone, unarmed against a super powered being that clearly showed that he didn’t bother to threaten him with violence.” Steve was pointing out the obvious, the others had to see that.

“Although I have to admit that it took me by surprise and it wasn’t particularly pleasant… I didn’t feel threatened. He didn’t squeeze, I felt that he was strong, but clearly not how strong he really is. I had the same impression that he wanted to see what I would do. Stark is right, Loki is a drama queen, he wants to be entertained. Excited and I believe he wants me to be excited about some of his darker shades.”

“Darker shades.” In his usual disrespectful way Tony was sighing loudly. “I’m sorry, but he is deranged, crazy, sadistic and a fucking lunatic. There are no darker shades. He is one black hole. When I had his hand around my neck, he threw me out the window.”

Rayne nodded patiently. “I know, Mr. Stark, but Loki doesn’t know that I know that. He took the bait and we have a better chance to stop him from doing harm than during the last two years. I am not going to be the reason we lose this chance.”

“Excellent.” With Fury perfectly content the meeting continued and Steve wished that he could have a better argument. Putting Loki behind bars seemed to be the answer to anything.

 ***

Once again Tony was put right. He had thought he had seen anything and he had been so wrong. Thor having a panic attack was something. They needed Steve and the suit to keep him in check. To stop him from immediately going to Norway and make things worse.

Was there a worse?

Loki’s early business had been destruction and murder.

Thinking about it had Tony almost retching. Thor’s little brother had suddenly shown up in a Norwegian laboratory and had started fuck the place up. No ordinary laboratory of course. The security guards had tried to stop him and so Loki had killed them. Before blowing the place up with his magic. The entire building went up in a green flame-

Favourite colour, huh? What a fucking bastard.

When the Avengers were informed the entire thing was already over. They also learned that it had been the lab Jane Foster was currently working for. Hence Thor’s panic attack. Fortunately it turned out though that she hadn’t been there when it had happened. Hard to tell if that had been Loki’s intention.

Anyway, for Steve, Clint and Tony things were quite clear now. They couldn’t have Rayne around Loki anymore. It was like a morbid reminder of who they were dealing with. Sometimes it was indeed easy to forget when Thor liked to talk about how different Loki had been and that his little brother could still be saved. Yeah, fuck that.

Since Fury was so into this mission they would have to go around him.

All three of them met up with Rayne in one of SHIELD’s training rooms. Rayne was busy kicking a sandbag when he noticed them. That didn’t make him stop though and Tony seriously felt sorry for the training equipment. That agent had a nasty punch.

“Agent Rayne, can we have a moment?”

Rayne glanced at Steve before kicking the sandbag. “I was already informed about Loki’s latest activities, Captain.”

“That’s not why we’re here. Could you stop for a moment? Please.”

Huffing in obvious displeasure Rayne turned fully to them, swiping the sweat off his brows. “I have a tight schedule. I don’t get to train as much as I should, so please, make it quick.”

Clint was glad to do just that. “Fine. The three of us had a change of heart. That mission is insane. You’re being sent into the lion’s den and frankly you’re no match for Loki if he decides to get violent. You should tell Fury that you want out.”

Rayne quirked an eyebrow. “That’s all? Not going to happen.”

Steve had to try another way. “It wouldn’t be admitting weakness but the reasonable thing to do. We just can’t be sure that’ll turn on you any second.”

“I can handle myself.”

Helplessly Steve looked at Clint who was better than him at pointing out uncomfortable truths. “Listen, Rayne, nobody is going to question your abilities as an undercover agent. I’ve read your resume. You are good at your shit, but you are not a fighter. None of your mission required physical confrontation and with Loki it could happen at any time.”

Steve wasn’t an expert in body language, but the expression on Rayne’s face made clear that Clint had just pissed him off. “I guess you didn’t read my resume too thoroughly. My missions don’t end up in physical confrontation, because I am great at my job. Only the sloppy ones need to take out their guns at the end, sure that gets more attention and maybe you get even made an Avenger.”

Tony made a loud “Oh” sound as if he had just found out something incredibly important. Steve wasn’t that surprised that Rayne didn’t seem to like them very much.

“Yeah, I get it. You and Nat worked in the same field. Rivalry and stuff, but please, you have to see this. Loki has about the same physical strength as Cap. He killed a couple of people yesterday and after the way he looked at you last night. You are not safe. All he had to do was twisting his hand a little bit and you would be dead. Let us help you and call it off!” Clint was insisting and Tony nodded in agreement. “Look, pal, nobody wants Loki put away more than us, but Fury is a bit too willing to go the extra mile. We don’t want you to end up as cannon fodder.”

Rayne let them both say their piece before speaking up again. “Mr. Stark, you’ve achieved everything in your life what a human being can achieve, so I am going to assume that you’re only doing this out of the goodness of your heart. What about you, Captain Rogers? What is your plan? Where do you wanna go? What is it that you want to achieve?”

There was nothing Steve could think of to say. He had trouble understanding what Rayne wanted to hear.

“Or you, agent Barton. An Avenger. Impressive. Is this the end of the line?”

“Rayne, where are you going with this?”

He explained it to them. Slowly, matter of fact and absolutely coldly, so unlike last night. “I am an excellent agent and I don’t make messes that I have to clean up afterwards. For some reason that only helps in getting overlooked. I am not going to do undercover work for the rest of my life. Getting into the inner circle of terrorist or making out with a god that wants to conquer Earth. I am going to sit on Fury’s chair one day. Or on Alexander Pierce’s. Some people just have to work a little harder to get places. Especially after the Avengers entered the picture. Even the top agents are small fish now. I’m going places. I‘m going to be the agent that’s going to play the major part in bringing Loki down. There is no chance whatsoever that I am stepping down from this mission. Have I made myself clear? Good. Now excuse me, I have to go back and train. I don’t have much time before I have to get ready for my date.”

Clearly done with them Rayne turned around and went back to his sandbag. The three Avengers standing there, having no clue how to react to that. So they didn’t.

 ***

Loki changed all of SHIELD’s plans once again with a simple text message.

_You wanted fancy – I’ll cook for you. Your place. In two hours. I’ll need an address._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are my new questions:
> 
> \- Good or bad idea to go on with this mission?  
> \- Does Loki know?  
> \- How is this dinner going to go?


	5. I just want to tell you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> Let's see if that dinner goes as expected ;)

Tony hadn’t felt that desperate for a cigarette in fucking forever. Now he was craving for one. Or a big bottle of vodka. Anything to calm down his nerves. If he was going crazy, how was Rayne feeling right now? Probably perfectly fine. That guy seemed as cold as ice sometimes. Tony could accept that they weren’t able to talk him out of this suicide mission, but he was nonetheless ready to storm the apartment immediately if necessary.

This time it was him and Steve in front of the same screen. Good choice, they definitely wouldn’t stop the other from interfering. Fury had the nerve to let Loki strangle Rayne… or worse. Somebody had to look out for the agent who was too ambitious to notice that he was in over his head.

Thanks to his little speech Tony for the first time thought about what the founding of the Avengers actually meant for the average SHIELD agent. Less work? Did they make it harder for them to climb up the ladder? Was this like a huge promotion for Natasha and now all the other undercover agents had to wait in line?

None of that should matter now.

At least SHIELD had done some thinking ahead and had set up cameras all over the apartment to make sure nothing went by unnoticed. Rayne had been hanging out there for five hours now, just in case. Lying on the couch, reading some book. Before that he had made himself familiar with his surroundings. Loki shouldn’t realise after two seconds that Rayne wasn’t really living here.

Tony would have liked to focus on the furniture to distract himself, but it didn’t work. For obvious reasons. “There are cameras in the bedroom.”

Next to him Steve winced. “They’re not going to go there.”

“You wish. You heard what Rayne said. He is going to do pretty much anything if it helps the mission…” Tony sighed at his own words and a second later the radio went off.

“Loki is approaching the building.”

“Here we go.”

It took another three minutes and Loki was knocking on Rayne’s door. Great, Tony was already feeling sick and nothing had happened yet. Rayne got up from the couch, casually strolling towards the door. No, he wasn’t really being that cool. Impossible.

The smile on his face was dazzling though as he opened the door for Loki. “Hey there. Surprised you’re on time.”

Loki who was carrying a small plastic bag answered with a grin. “I guess I am still not forgiven?”

“We’ll see.” Stepping aside Rayne let Loki inside the apartment and then closed the door behind him. Then Tony was in for the first thing that gave him goose bumps. Loki, being a bit faster than any human should be, had put his bag down and the second Rayne turned back around Loki had him pressed against the shut door, kissing him intensely.

This was already giving Tony a headache. Yes, objectively they were looking good. Two attractive guys making out, lost to the world. But one of them was Loki and he had Rayne in a tight spot. They knew about his strength, if Loki didn’t want to, Rayne was going nowhere. Since he was a good actor it didn’t look like he wanted to, his fingers were tangled in Loki’s brown curls. Loki’s hand was on Rayne’s hip and Tony couldn’t see them stopping anytime soon.

“And you really think that Loki didn’t come here to have some fun?” Tony shot Steve a look who was already having trouble with looking at the screen. “It’s just wrong that he should have to do that…”

Although Tony agreed with that he could tell at least that Loki was an attractive person. So he could be worse. Then on the other hand… did crazy killer weigh out attractiveness?

Steve clearly sighed in relief when Loki slightly pulled back, but still had Rayne pressed against the door. “How about now?”

Humming Rayne slightly tilted his head, giving Loki the dreamy eyes. “Better, but not quite there yet.”

His fingers were still in Loki’s hair, so it was quite easy to pull him into a new kiss and Steve grunted in annoyance. “I’m not going to be able to take this.”

“You heard the man. I think if we jumped in there to save him, he would kill us. This is how he wants to get ahead. Getting SHIELD’s enemy number 1 behind bars will get you places, he is right about that.”

“Yes, I know.” Steve didn’t sound happy about it, but the conversation was cut short since Loki and Rayne finally parted.

“Okay, I guess you are forgiven.” Rayne smiled somewhat cheekily and then nodded towards the bag on the floor. “What are you going to cook for me?”

“Why don’t you wait and enjoy the surprise. Show me the kitchen?”

Nodding Rayne grabbed Loki’s hand and led him out of the room. So they were actual going to eat something, Tony hadn’t been so sure about that. Loki quickly made himself at home in the kitchen while Rayne poured them two glasses of wine.

“How much do you think does he have to drink to get wasted? Because that would be a good strategy…” Tony was more or less thinking out loud, but Steve didn’t seem too enthusiastic. “You have seen Thor party. I don’t think there is much hope.”

In the meantime Loki was laying out the contents of his bag on the kitchen counter and Rayne had sat down on one of the bar stools. “So what do I have to do?”

“Nothing. You get to entertain me.” With a smirk Loki picked up a long knife and Tony’s mouth went dry. That was about the worst possible combination. Cooking didn’t work without knives, but Loki’s grip on it was way too easy, too familiar. That man usually didn’t use knives to cut vegetables.

Rayne shrugged and took a sip from his wine. “Fine, I’ll do my best… without letting you know just yet how crazy I am.”

Loki didn’t reply, but Tony had no trouble making out that little smile on his lips. With him it could all be show, impossible to tell. Yet Tony liked to believe that Loki was actually enjoying himself.

“I had a not very pleasant confrontation with some co-workers yesterday.”

Tony’s mouth dropped open. “Wow, now he’s dragging us into this to score points with Loki.”

For some strange reason this left Steve completely unbothered. “He tells Loki whatever he thinks will make a good impression.”

That was true, alright. Tony couldn’t exactly remember what story they had made up for Loki. Something about a rather boring office job. Nothing anybody would ask further questions about.

While cutting some chicken Loki looked at Rayne expectantly. “What about?”

“They thought they knew better than me how I am supposed to do my job.”

“So what did you do?”

“Told them to fuck off.”

Loki snorted in delight. “Now that’s going to establish a comfortable working atmosphere.”

“Then don’t tell me what to do.” They shared a smirk and once again Tony was reminded of good they would actually look together. Was that a thing spies did? Tell the actual truth, but spinning it around to fit whatever situation? Reminded Tony of running a business.

But this was way more dangerous. Was it really that much of a difference if Loki had a knife in his hand or not? It wasn’t like that man needed a weapon to hurt someone.

Nonetheless it made Tony feel a little better when Loki put down the knife. “And what if I told you what to do?”

Rayne was doing that thing with his mouth. Not quite a smile, not a smirk either. Something in between that was hard to decipher. “That depends. I could see one or two situation in which I would allow you to boss me around…”

Closing his eyes Tony groaned. “Shit, they’re so going to do it.”

“Isn’t that kind of risky… I mean… apart from that being horribly wrong… Isn’t there a possibility that Loki is just going to disappear after sleeping with him?”

Hearing Steve say that made it extra weird and normally Tony would agree, but there were some obvious points that couldn’t be ignored. “Let’s be honest, Loki could have taken him home last night and he didn’t. So no desperation there. Also Rayne is gorgeous and I’m pretty sure he knows how to make a guy come back for more. Great, now I feel dirty for even talking about this.”

Luckily for them the conversation continued quite normally for a while. Work, food and no innuendos. Until Loki put the chicken in the stove and washed his hands. Rayne took advantage of the situation, sliding his arms around Loki’s waist from behind, resting his forehead between his shoulder blades. Tony wondered how this worked for him. Was he really so cool that the close contact didn’t bother him? Or did he need mental preparation before doing something like this?

“Thanks by the way…” Rayne’s words were somewhat hard to catch, because he mumbled them against the fabric of Loki’s shirt. “This is really sweet. I can’t remember when I had somebody cooking for me.”

“It’s no big deal, I enjoy cooking.”

“I really appreciate it.” Rayne pressed a kiss to his neck and Loki didn’t move. He stood perfectly still and Tony really needed an expert on body language with them. Seeing Loki not moving and not talking was something they had never had to deal with, so he had no idea what to make of this.

The stayed like that and one second melted into the next. Loki remained silent and Rayne seemed to be content holding him.

Tony was totally freaked out.

“So what are we going to do till the chicken is ready?”

“You could show me your apartment.”

Now that was a rather dangerous suggestion. The entire apartment had been set up by SHIELD in less than three days. Yeah, they had made it look quite personal and lived in, but why shouldn’t Loki find something that would make their whole scheme crumble. At least Rayne didn’t look bothered. “Gladly. So this is the kitchen with which you are already quite familiar. Would you be so kind and follow me to the living room?” Rayne winked before grabbing Loki’s hand and pulling him with him.

Seconds later they were in the living room and Loki was immediately more interested in the bookshelf than in anything else. “Now we have two possibilities. Either you like to show off or you just have these books here to make people think you’re smart.” Loki pulled out a copy of Marcus Aurelius and flipped through it.

Rayne crossed his arms in front of his chest and slightly raised his chin. “To make them think I am smart?”

Still scanning the pages Loki started to grin. “So you’ve read your classics?”

“Sure, I’ve read all my classics.”

Loki shut the book, the look of an amused man on his face. “Ne ut qui millia annorum victurus sit; fatum impendet; dum vivis, dum licet, fac bonus fias. ”

Tony groaned and was tempted to give Loki the finger although he wasn’t really here. “And that man calls Rayne a show off?”

The agent, unlike Tony, remained as calm as ever. “Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.”

Their reactions couldn’t be more different. Tony let out a sound filled with powerful frustration and he couldn’t suppress a face palm. “Fuck those SHIELD agents and their Latin. It’s a dead language!”

Tony was pissed and Loki was… Well, one had to find the right words to describe that. The Asgardian bag of cats. Crazy sociopath and mass murderer was completely smitten.

The ever present grin faded away and was replaced by a smile that should be nowhere near Loki’s lips. It didn’t fit there. A smile too gentle, small and real. It was beautiful, actually. No, Loki had no business smiling like that.

“You know…” Loki put the book back onto the shelf. “The original was written in Old Greek.”

“And you’re calling me the show off?” Rayne cocked his head, but it was still the same flirty teasing that had been there before.

“I didn’t say that’s a bad thing… Arrogance is only annoying when it’s unjustified. You’ve read them, so no reason to be shy about it.”

Rayne took that quite literally. “Ex nihilo nihil fit.“

Honestly, if Loki wasn’t going to kill Rayne, Tony was going to do it. The pretentiousness was giving him a severe headache. Quoting Latin to each other? Was that their version of dirty talk? Then they needed serious help.

That smile was still on Loki’s face and Tony was longing for some murderous grin or simply bloodlust. Anything. Not that smile and a certain glint in Loki’s eyes. There were way too many cameras in that room. Tony was seeing way too many things.

“Lucretius.” Loki stated quietly, taking one step closer to Rayne who returned the smile and raised his finger to correct Loki. “And Shakespeare used in King Lear, but it’s okay if you don’t know that. I do.”

For some reason Tony instantly thought that Loki was going to slap Rayne for even suggesting that there was something that he didn’t know. Once more Tony was proven wrong. Loki’s reaction was instant, but it was a lot less violent than expected.

“Tony, I really don’t think I can do this. This is getting way too intimate.” Steve half turned away from the screen and Tony was inclined to agree. Not the first kiss they were witnessing, but Tony didn’t like how fast things were changing. Yesterday they had watched them sucking face and Tony could deal with that. Even Loki had to get his rocks off sometime. That was still somewhat okay. Now seeing him with his hands on Rayne’s cheeks and kissing him perfectly gently.

Again, that was so wrong.

“Isn’t that exactly what we want? Theoretically, I mean? Rayne getting as close as he can, so Loki will let him into his daily routines and we’ll get the perfect opportunity without anyone getting hurt. Maybe we’re reading too much into this… like they’ve known each other for a week, they’re still moving pretty fast. Loki may like him, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. They’re fooling around. Rayne is a fucking agent and Loki wants to have some fun. At least nobody is going to get his heart broken here. Yeah, this is fucking uncomfortable to watch…” Tony muttered beneath his breath and on the screen they were still kissing.

More than that, Rayne was pushing Loki down on his couch, climbing over him.

“Okay, perhaps we won’t have to worry about the cameras in the bedroom…” Tony pointed out and Steve groaned helplessly. “You know that I’m going to leave as soon as clothes are going to come off. You’ll be on your own then.”

Tony could deal with that. Usually he preferred to be able to select his own porn, but Rayne was pretty, Loki was attractive and Tony would blend out the fact that he knew both of them. Now that he was almost sure that Rayne would start trying to literally get into Loki’s pants Tony found out that he was wrong again.

Rayne lifted his head, licking his lips and Tony was a horrible person, because that was definitely attractive. The agent let his fingers trail over Loki’s cheek. “You sting.”

“Oh, you wouldn’t believe.” Loki’s grin was malicious promise and Rayne rolled his eyes. “I’ve never kissed someone with a beard before. You sting… and I’m wondering what you would look like without it.”

“Pale.” Loki replied simply and Rayne huffed. “So I guess I’m going to completely ruin my face with you…”

Smiling softly Loki pecked him on the lips. “Later. We should check on the food.”

Tony and Steve both agreed, but of course nobody cared. The difficult part seemed to be done for now though since Rayne and Loki indeed returned to the kitchen. The food was indeed ready and they settled down to eat. Finally the chance for their observers to catch a breath. Also Tony was getting hungry? Why was Rayne getting a nice dinner and Tony had to nibble on a banana?

“This is delicious.” Rayne wasn’t just saying that, he was clearly eating like a man who was genuinely enjoying his meal. “You can cook for me anytime you like. It’s really good.”

“I’ve told you that I have many different interests… and different talents.” Smug as usual, Loki couldn’t help himself and Tony doubted that he ever tried to.

Rayne was still swooning over the food and that was definitely the realest thing he had done so far. “I agree with that. I’ve always wondered if you have to learn cooking or if that’s just something you can do? Did you sneak into the kitchen to secretly spy on your mom?”

Loki’s fork came to a stop half way to his mouth and Tony’s inner alarm bells started ringing. “I did learn one or two tricks from her, yes.”

It didn’t take an expert, not even a very empathetic guy to notice the change in Loki’s voice. As if somebody had dropped a bucket of ice water over him.

Any good agent should be able to adapt to that, right? At some time Rayne would have to stop giving them reasons to admire him. His got a little wider, just a little bit to make him look embarrassed and flustered. “I’m sorry, you said that you didn’t want to talk about your family. I was out of line.”

Loki arched one eyebrow. “How so?”

Where was he going with this?

“You were uncomfortable with this before and I’ve only known you for a week, so it’s perfectly normal that you wouldn’t share that kind of stuff with me.” Rayne shrugged and these words coming from him where the most natural thing ever. Loki on the other end suddenly looked rather pensive. “I’ve always thought that was weird.”

Code red?

Keeping his calm Rayne asked Loki what he meant by that.

“That general concept. You don’t know me well enough to ask me private questions, but long enough to sleep with me. Most people think that way. I think it’s strange.” Loki pointed out and Tony’s mouth dropped open.

Really? Now Loki had to be messing with him. Who had started the make-out session the second he had entered the apartment? Had they been naïve for thinking that Loki was going to make this unnecessary hard?

“Do you really think that?” Rayne had put his fork down, the food obviously forgotten. “That it’s more personal to sleep with somebody than letting them in on your secrets?”

Loki’s eyes were on Rayne’s face the entire time and Tony wasn’t so sure if he could do an as good job at taking as the agent. “I don’t know, it just makes me wonder.”

“Okay, I get that… I guess it depends on what information we’re talking about. But at least for me there are some things that I can’t see myself telling anyone who I don’t trust completely. With sex… I don’t know, it’s just different. That’s just one side of me that the other one sees. What’s going on in my head only belongs to me and sharing it seems like a bigger deal.”

Eventually Loki nodded, propping up his head on the back of his hand. “So what is going on in that head of yours?”

Rayne lowered his eyes just a second before smiling. “I’m trying to figure you out.”

“Good luck with that. You’d be the first one.” The grin was back and Tony leaned back in his chair. Okay, everything was fine. Back to the flirting.

“You just don’t know yet how good I am at this stuff.” The smile on Rayne’s face was a promise of things to come and Tony couldn’t believe that after dinner there were a lot more kisses and then Loki got up to leave.

Tony definitely wasn’t the only one taken aback, Rayne stared at him in utter shock, grabbing Loki’s hand. “Where are you going?”

No man had ever looked more self-satisfied than Loki. “I’m giving you something to figure out.”

So Loki left, Tony had now a few more grey hairs and Steve was probably traumatized from all that making out.

 ***

No, scratch that. It was time to get traumatized during the next meeting when Rayne had some very special questions for Thor.

“Do you have any idea what your brother is into? Sexually.”

More than one person at the table choked when hearing that.

Thor immediately turned to stone. “That’s something I wouldn’t talk about even if I had any idea about my brother’s… preferences.”

Somewhat annoyed Rayne shot Fury a glance that said ‘Could you please make your special team answer my questions?’. Fury was glad to help his new favorite agent out. “Thor, now is not the time to hold back information.”

Opening his mouth Thor was definitely ready to voice his outrage, but Clint beat him to it. “Seriously? You just dodged a bullet and now you’re asking Thor for advice on how to fuck Loki? Why would you be actively pursuing that?”

Rayne’s eyes darted to him and once more that blank mask was covering his face. A complete difference than when he was with Loki. How long would it probably take till all that spy work completely changed your personality?

“Because I have a plan. Loki may think that he is hard to figure out, but he’s actually not. He likes me, but he is weary and the physical attraction is only secondary. Loki wants to talk. He wants to talk to me so badly… or to anyone. He wants to rant and moan about how unfairly his older brother and his family treated him.”

Tony could only laugh at that. “He does that all the time we fight him.”

“Yes, but you don’t listen. Most importantly you don’t agree. I will listen and I will agree with him. The problem is that Loki can’t tell me and he won’t. Not until I’ve established some form of trust. Sex alone isn’t going to do that, but it definitely helps… So yes, I’m going to sleep with him and then I’m going to tell him something about myself. Something dark that I wouldn’t just share with anybody. Then I am going to tell him that I know who he is.”

Everybody started protesting at the very same second. Questions were flying around. Was he serious? Had he lost his mind? Was he eager to get killed?

“Agent Rayne, may you please explain us what do you hope to accomplish with this… idea?” Fury wasn’t hiding his skepticism to put it mildly. He was definitely one of the people wondering if Rayne had lost it.

Rayne explained his reasoning with all the calmness in the world. “Like I said – what he wants most is to get his point across. Loki wants to tell me how Thor wronged him and he can only do that if I know who he is. I am going to tell him that I recognized him and that I don’t care.”

“Okay, let’s ignore that this plan is completely crazy. There is no way that you can pull this off and make it believable. The second you tell him that you know who he is, he will know what’s going on and he will rip you apart.” Tony wasn’t holding back, because he could clearly see Rayne’s ambition getting the better of him. That man was already picturing himself in Fury’s chair and completely overlooked that Loki could still snap his neck any second despite enjoying shoving his tongue down Rayne’s throat.

“I assure you, Mr. Stark, I can pull this off, because that’s what Loki wants. He is a show-off and he has to hold back the entire time, he’s full of anger that he can’t voice and he wants somebody to tell him he is completely right. I’m going to do that.”

“No, you are not.” Fury shook his head and put an end to this conversation. “I appreciate the effort, agent Rayne, but this strategy is way too risky. You are not going to reveal that you know who he is.”

“Director…”

“The answer was no, Rayne.”

So Rayne pressed his lips back together, the air around him pretty much vibrating with displeasure. Hopefully he would realize after a bit of time that Fury just saved his ass. Tony doubted it though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is that a good plan?   
> Is Rayne going to do it anyway? ;)


	6. I just want you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody,
> 
> Another day, another date and Rayne is going all in ;) Let's see how Loki reacts to that

_I’ve been thinking about you. I’m not using this as a romantic phrase. I’ve been thinking about beating your ass for leaving like you did last night_

_Is that all you do? Thinking?_

_I’m pretty good at it. You want to know what else I am thinking?_

_I’m dying to know_

_I think that you love to cause trouble and that you only left to get a rise out of me._

_Or to have you thinking about it all night long. Have you figured me out yet?_

_Years ago_

_Of course. I would like to hear that_

_Over dinner?_

_No, now. Spill_

_No. Things don’t always have to go your way. We can talk about it tonight_

_Where?_

_Your place_

_Don’t think so_

_Why not?_

_Just one of my rules._

_Playing hard to get is so overrated_

_But so much fun_

_Seriously, I want to see you. In one hour, I’ll text you the address._

_Alright_

_***_

It was a change for sure. Rayne let Loki wait. Steve had no idea if that was smart or stupid. Well, it didn’t matter, because Loki had already been leaning against the wall for five minutes, tipping on his phone. A strange sight. Right now he looked so perfectly ordinary. Like a guy waiting for his date. A clearly drunk couple stumbled out of the club, giggling heavily. They weren’t too sure on their feet, the guy tripped and bumped into Loki.

Quite forcefully. Loki’s phone skittered across the floor and Steve bit his lip. How was he supposed to know how Loki would react in such a situation? Was that couple in danger? Should he…

“Sorry pal.” The man was slurring and Loki bent down picking up his phone. “It’s alright. You better take a taxi to get home safely.”

Steve sighed in relief while Thor next to him hadn’t moved a bit. Still his arms crossed in front of his chest, scowling. The couple slowly and very ungracefully left while Loki critically looked at his phone. Then it suddenly shimmered in green light for a second.

“Did you see that? He was just using magic in a public place.” Thor was growling and Steve couldn’t say that he really minded as long as Loki wasn’t hurting anybody. “Most people will probably think that it was just the screen of his phone lightening up… There is Rayne.”

“Waiting for someone?” Loki raised his head and Rayne was already next to him, smiling in the sweetest way. His eyes were shining, lightening up his entire face and Steve couldn’t help but think that was very sad that he was jealous for even half a second. The look on Rayne’s face was fake and yet it was that expression everybody wished for. Having somebody to look at them like this.

Wasn’t this a bit much? Shouldn’t Rayne be a little more subtle?

To Steve’s surprise Loki didn’t mind. He let Rayne slide his arms around his shoulders and kiss him. Only then he spoke up. “I have a feeling that you let me wait on purpose.”

“Handsome and smart.” Rayne grabbed Loki’s hand. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

Loki didn’t move at all. “I would rather not.”

Rayne’s eyebrows went up. “Why not?”

“Because drunk people are already wandering out of this club which means there are even more inside. Not my type of crowd. You mind if I take you somewhere else?”

Steve could hear Thor moan, unable to voice his displeasure any clearer. “He likes to do that… let somebody else make plans and then sabotage them.”

“It’s also great timing since we have about 20 agents in that club.” Steve let his head fall back, silently praying that Rayne would be able to convince Loki to go dancing after all.

“What place?”

Loki’s fingers curled around Rayne’s wrist and pulled him closer. “How about we go for a walk?”

“It’s in the middle of the night.”

“So?”

Rayne grimaced slightly. “I wanted to dance. I’ve had a blast the last time we went dancing.”

Smiling in amusement Loki shook his head. “We’ve hardly danced the last time. We did a lot of this.” Moving in Loki brushed his mouth over Rayne’s before turning it into a real kiss. Once more Steve had thoughts that he shouldn’t have. Being jealous of something that wasn’t real and also crazy. But the way Rayne visibly melted into the kiss, his free arm back around Loki’s neck was something most people dreamt about.

“Okay…” Barely pulling back Rayne muttered these words against Loki’s lips. That microphone was doing a marvelous job. “Maybe I don’t want to dance. Maybe I want to do more of that… so why should we go on a walk?”

“Because we’ll definitely find a nicer place like this. Come on.” Loki stole another kiss and then simply pulled Rayne along. Which meant they pretty quickly walked out of sight and Steve and Thor had to rely on Rayne’s microphone to know what was happening.

“So where are we going? I don’t like wandering around without a plan.”

“Me neither. Good thing that we’re not just wandering around. I always have a plan.”

Concerned Steve shot Thor a look. “Should we be worried?”

“I don’t know. You can never know with Loki.” Thor’s face was still complete darkness and Steve wondered why. It couldn’t just be the legitimate worry that Loki was going to look through this lie. Or was he angry about how they were playing Loki? Steve could understand both points perfectly well.

Loki’s plan was very simple. After two minutes of walking they ended up in some lounge, at least Steve could tell that from Rayne’s commentary. “This is nice. You’ve been here before?”

“Couple of times. They serve amazing cocktails.”

“Planning on making me drunk?”

“Do I have to?”

“No, definitely not.”

Nothing special for several moments, they got a table, ordered their drinks and then there were sounds of kissing. Thor huffed in annoyance which had Steve shifting uncomfortably. He would so much rather do this observation with Tony.

Uncomfortable minutes passed. Luckily not all filled with kissing, but also hushed conversation. Nothing of importance was being said though. Eventually two agents finally caught up with them and entered the lounge, delivering a visual. Not the best position, they had to watch from quite a distance, but Steve could clearly make out Loki and Rayne sitting in a booth and they couldn’t be closer to each other. Rayne was probably seconds away from sliding into Loki’s lap.

They barely even noticed when their drinks were served. Rayne lifted his hand and played with one of Loki’s curls. The agent wasn’t in the right position to get a close-up, but Steve could make out Rayne’s smile nonetheless.

“Can I tell you something?”

Loki nodded, but instead of letting Rayne talk he kissed him. So it took another minute until the conversation continued.

“Now for real… I don’t know where you want this to go or what you expect to get out of it and that’s perfectly okay, because I don’t have a clue either. I just want to say that I still believe that you are a jerk and I like you. I really do. So if I ask you again to come home with me tonight, it’s not just because you’re gorgeous.”

Steve swallowed heavily and he could taste the bitterness of the cruelty of the situation. It wasn’t like Steve had felt comfortable with it before, but now since Rayne was actually talking about feelings, it was so much worse. At this time Steve didn’t even dare to look into Thor’s direction.

No snarky comment. No flirty reply. Loki just sat there, a small smile on his lips, his hand on Rayne’s. “You are asking for a lot of trouble.”

Without missing a beat Rayne leaned in closer, resting his forehead against Loki’s. “I can deal with a lot of things, you can’t even imagine…”

“I guess we will see.”

Loki sounded happy and Steve felt his stomach clenching. No, this was Loki. There was no way Loki was seriously falling for Rayne. Just a few days ago Loki had killed innocent people in cold blood. Whatever he was able to feel, it definitely wasn’t affection. Out of the question.

“He likes him.”

Steve flinched, because it seemed Thor had explicitly spoken up to contradict his own thoughts. “What?”

Thor still had his arms crossed in front of his face and looked down, avoiding the screen. “Loki likes him. I can tell. He’s probably still mostly looking for entertainment, but Loki likes him. That doesn’t happen often…”

No, Steve wasn’t going to think about the implications. Loki was cold and he couldn’t fall in love. End of story.

Their attention was brought back to the observation when someone new entered the picture. A man was standing by Loki’s and Rayne’s table, clearing his throat. “Could you guys please cut it out? This is a public place.”

Rayne raised both eyebrows at the man before turning back to Loki with a grin. “You’re right. You’re trouble. Alright, we’re cutting down on the kissing. Actually we wanted to leave anyway.”

“We did?” Loki asked and he clearly couldn’t enjoy himself more.

“Absolutely.” With utter joy Rayne captured Loki in a new kiss although the guy complaining about them making out was still standing next to them. He obviously decided to give up though, since he walked away, shaking his head. Maybe too soon, because Rayne pulled back and put a couple of notes on the table. “We’re totally leaving.”

It was strange to see Rayne taking complete control and Loki letting him, having fun with it. So Rayne dragged Loki out of the bar, only to instantly stop outside to pull him close and share another kiss. “You’re not going to back out again, right? Because I might seriously hurt you if you. Physically.”

Laughing softly Loki put his hands on Rayne’s cheeks and muttered against his lips. “I don’t think I am going to risk that…”

That clearly settled it. Rayne called a taxi and they had to rely on the audio again. Which didn’t help much either since there wasn’t much talking during the drive to Rayne’s fake apartment. With several cameras in every single room. Steve’s heart was beating so much faster than it should and it was impossible to deny the intense sickness which was coming over him.

Things only got worse when the doors opened and the two of them stumbled inside, not much different from the couple Loki had met in front of the club. Only for completely different reasons. Loki and Rayne weren’t drunk but already busy pulling each other’s clothes off. Passionate, intense kisses with a lot of tongue and at the first hint of moan Steve decided that he couldn’t and wasn’t going to stay one second longer.

“Thor, I am out of here. No way that I am going to watch this.” Steve got up from his chair and Thor immediately followed suit. “I agree, Captain.”

It had to be the most uncomfortable moment of Steve’s life. At least he couldn’t think of anything that made him more uneasy than hearing that breathy sound, somewhere between a laugh and a moan. Steve had already turned his back to the screen, but that didn’t change anything. That was Thor’s brother and Thor was right there.

When the door of the van was shut behind them Steve thought he could breathe a bit better. Not seeing what was happening was definitely less awkward, but it didn’t change the fact that Thor and him knew exactly what Rayne and Loki were doing right now. In a million years Steve wouldn’t have expected that his work as an Avenger would include nights like this.

“I need a coffee. You’re in?”

Thor nodded absently and Steve wondered if he should give him a pat on the shoulder to show his support, but wouldn’t that be weird? What kind of support? This mission had been sanctioned by Thor from the very beginning, but that didn’t mean that it was easy to stomach to be aware of his brother sleeping with a secret agent who was manipulating him.

So they had coffee in a dinner around the corner and both of them agreed that none of them was going to return to this observation tonight. If something was to happen that demanded their interference, then SHIELD would definitely contact them. Steve and Thor were done for the night.

 ***

It was no secret that Tony had never been a fan of Avengers’ meetings, but the atmosphere today was so uncomfortable that Tony almost considered it funny. The way how Steve and Thor avoided looking anybody in the eyes had Tony laughing inwardly. As soon as Tony had accepted that Rayne was totally in this for himself, it was so much easier to handle. Tony had Jarvis already looking into older SHIELD missions, just to find out what Natasha had done in her previous line of work. He had to know if this was a regular thing.

Alright, this wasn’t an everyday occurrence. They were meeting up to discuss what they had learned from Rayne’s and Loki’s meeting yesterday. Except that they hadn’t found out much other than Loki was the type of guy who preferred five dates before hooking up. Oh, also Tony was extremely less kinky than he had thought. Time to feel proud of himself for not watching live and free porn. His motives weren’t noble or moral though. Actually Tony had been scared like crazy that he might be turned on and then it would be him who would end up having trouble looking Thor in the eyes.

There hadn’t been a single call in the last 12 hours, so Tony was positive that things had gone smoothly. Details would be presented now, Natasha and Fury were already waiting, both of them clearly impatient.

Rayne wasn’t here which seemed strange. He couldn’t still be with Loki, they wouldn’t have a meeting if that was the case.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen.” Fury immediately started to talk as soon as everybody had sat down. “I fear we have to lose precious time with bringing you up to date since four of you decided to leave their positions last night.”

“You are not seriously reproaching us for that? I am not going to apologize that I don’t want to watch Loki having sex with one of your agents.” Bruce was quick to point out the hint of annoyance in Fury’s voice and Steve backed him up. “I am with Bruce, Director. With that many cameras and agents operating them, you surely don’t need us… watching all of it. If Loki had attacked him, we would have received the distress signal anyway.”

“I am not criticizing your discomfort, but the fact that we have to have this meeting “

Tony didn’t buy any of that, he remained silent anyway since he felt no desire whatsoever to prolong this conversation. It was a rare occasion to have Natasha agreeing with him. “We should get started.” Picking up a remote control she pushed a button and on the TV screen in front of the table a scene out of Rayne’s bedroom began to play. “No reason to worry, we cut the scenes that you don’t need to see.”

How gracious of them. Tony wondered if some agents made copies of the filthy stuff for themselves. It was impossible to deny that he was a man with fucked up priorities.

The video spared them indeed any explicit imagery, but it was definitely intimate nonetheless. Which was probably even more uncomfortable for some people than watching them fooling around. Fortunately Tony wasn’t one of those people.

Loki and Rayne were lying in bed, a white sheet covering them decently enough. Nope, these two didn’t look like people who had had terrible sex. Definitely not. That was only fair, Rayne deserved some entertainment for risking his neck and Loki was getting screwed in every way possible. Poetic justice.

Rayne was resting his head on Loki’s shoulder, his fingers lazily drawing patterns on the other’s chest. “You want to hear a funny story?”

“No, but I am pretty sure you’re going to tell it anyway.”

“Absolutely. I think it’s hilarious that you wanted to get rid of me by being a jerk… and that I probably would have left you alone if you had played nice from the beginning. Jerk-you is so much more interesting.”

“Some would say your taste in men is unhealthy.”

“Fuck them.” Tilting his head up Rayne kissed him quickly. It was Loki who eventually pulled away and let his fingers run over a scar on Rayne’s shoulder. “What happened there?”

Tony’s heart skipped a beat when he saw Rayne flinch. Shit, was that scar the reminder of a mission? Shouldn’t he be prepared for a question like that? Especially since he had known that he was going to take his clothes off?

Seemingly lost in thought Rayne pulled Loki’s hand away and traced the scar with his own fingers. “A souvenir of a bad relationship.”

“You have my full attention. Go on.” Loki seemed intrigued and Rayne shifted ever so slightly. “It’s not pretty.”

“Pretty stories are boring and do not interest me.” Another demanding but yet soft glance. “Tell me.”

After exhaling audibly Rayne nodded. “Alright. My girlfriend at the time stabbed me when I told her that I wanted to leave her. A knee-jerk reaction. She grabbed a pair of scissors from the table. The wound wasn’t very deep. That bitch didn’t even know how to properly stab someone…”

Tony blinked, confusion coming over him. Okay, that story was definitely bullshit, but Rayne knew how to sell it. That underlying anger and the refusal to talk about it. The sudden use of the b-word. Was that enough to convince Loki though?

“I guess there is another story that led up to the stabbing.”

Rayne sighed at Loki’s question and nodded. “A story about me being an idiot and not realising that I was being taken advantage of. She was… awful. Relied on me for pretty much everything, but still liked to make me feel like I wasn’t good enough. Whenever we were out, she liked to pay attention to anyone but me and she couldn’t stop criticizing me in front of our friends. She was excellent with my family though. At making them believe that all our problems had somehow to do with me and she was just reacting to them. It’s pretty embarrassing that it took quite a while for me to send her to hell… I should be thankful for the stab wound, it finally made everyone believe that she was a basket case…” Trailing off Rayne rolled onto his back and rubbed both his hands over his face. “This pillow talk sucks.”

Next to him Loki propped himself up on his lower arms. “Why are you feeling ashamed?”

“Because I was stupid and that is one of the stories I should tell only five years into a relationship or better not at all… Certainly not after I’ve had amazing sex with somebody for the first time.”

“Somebody using you and playing the good guy in front of everybody else is not your fault. It’s something you have to overcome and then you never let anybody else treat you this way again.” Loki’s voice was causing shudders to run down Tony’s back. Perfectly even, completely serious. They all knew what was going on in Loki’s twisted, little brain. He was talking about himself and Thor, creating a truth that only Loki believed in.

Meanwhile Loki continued talking. “What did you do? After she rammed the scissors into your shoulder?”

Removing his hands from his face Rayne met Loki’s eyes. “I ripped out the scissors and I slapped her across the face.”

A terrifying smirk appeared on Loki’s lips. “Completely justified… and yet not enough. I hope you at least don’t feel ashamed for that part.”

Rayne looked up at him, his expression strangely blank. “I guess not. No.”

The smirk on Loki’s face got a bit wider as he leaned down. “Good. I don’t mind this as pillow talk.” Rayne gasped in surprise and something else as Loki licked over the scar on his shoulder. Quickly tangling his fingers in Loki’s hair Rayne dragged his head up, slamming their mouths together in a passionate kiss and then a hard cut in the video saved everybody from watching where this would go.

Now both of them were asleep and Natasha offered them some commentary. “About 5 hours later.”

Things remained calm for about three seconds, then Loki woke up. After looking at Rayne Loki got up from the bed and Tony had to admit that the Asgardian had nothing to be ashamed of. Physically. Loki disappeared into the bathroom and Rayne’s eyes snapped open. So another attractive naked man was getting out of bed and immediately went to digging into the pockets of Loki’s jeans which were lying on the floor. He pulled out some kind of card and a piece of paper. Rayne seemed to be working with the speed of light, reaching under the bed he grabbed a phone that he used to make photos of the content of Loki’s pockets. As soon as he was done Rayne put everything back where it had been and then slipped back into bed, closing his eyes as if nothing had ever happened.

Natasha fast forwarded the video until Loki came back into the bedroom, a towel wrapped around his waist. Casually he picked up his clothes and got dressed before sitting down on the bed, watching Rayne. Not long enough for Tony to get nervous though.

Loki woke Rayne up by putting his hand on his shoulder, or at least he thought so. The agent had pulled off this entire job perfectly so far, therefore it wasn’t a surprise that he was good at pretending to being still half caught up in his dreams. “Loki...?” Sitting up Rayne blinked and then took in Loki’s full appearance. “Why are you dressed? Don’t tell me you’re already leaving?”

“It’s 7 o’clock. Now sleeping is just a waste of time. If you manage to detangle yourself from these sheets I might even take you out for breakfast.”

“Damn, I should have known you would be one of these horrible morning birds… Okay, give me 10 minutes.” Rayne yawned and even got a kiss on the cheek.

The video stopped there and Natasha handed out copies of the photographs Rayne had taken. A driver’s licence and a piece of paper with an address written down on it.

“Huh… who would have thought? Loki does have an actual fake driver’s licence. He is putting some care into his schemes.”

“A bit more than that.” Natasha pointed out. “We looked into the name that he used. He even payed taxes.”

That was the most unbelievable thing that Tony had ever heard. Unlike him Steve was far more interested in the address. “Do we know where that is?”

“Don’t get your hopes up, it’s not his hide-out. It’s the address of an art museum and the number belongs to an exhibit. Perhaps this is the next thing he wants to steal. The museum is now under constant surveillance.” Natasha explained and Tony nodded before asking the only question that mattered to him right now. “Where is Rayne? What happened after breakfast?”

“Loki claimed he had to go to work and left. Rayne returned to the apartment for another hour and then came back to the headquarters. He gave us his report and then he went to one of the dorms, saying that he had to catch up on some sleep.”

“Yeah, obviously.” Tony couldn’t help and every single one of them stared at him as if he had made some racist joke. “What? It has been awkward long enough, don’t you think?”

Ignoring him Steve kept asking Natasha questions. “What’s his take on the situation? Is he okay?”

Natasha raised an eyebrow at him. “He is an undercover agent, of course he is fine. He complained that Director Fury still wouldn’t give him permission to use his preferred strategy. He is perfectly sure that after two more dates he will have Loki eating out of his hand.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? Is he right? Does he have Loki eating out of his hand? ;)


	7. I just might understand you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> To clear up possible misunderstandings - 
> 
> Loki's identity is not known to the public. There was an alien invasion, yes and there might be images of him floating around, but information on him has never been published. It probably wouldn't endear the public to Thor if they knew what his brother has done. During the invasion Loki never publicly stated his name.
> 
> He did introduce himself to Rayne as Loki though. So Rayne was merely calling him by his name. Nothing more to it ;)
> 
> Today we're looking at why it would definitely be a good idea to stop Loki once and for all...
> 
> Have fun :D

“Just don’t ask anything… too personal.”

“What? You want me to not ask about how Loki is in bed? Then what’s the point of all this?”

Steve shot him the look of a disappointed parent. The kind that made your guts clench and twist. Nonetheless Tony shrugged. “Believe it or not, I am pretty sure that he feels way less awkward talking about all of this than us. He’d probably be shocked if I didn’t ask.”

“I give up.” Shaking his head Steve continued to walk down the hall and eventually pushed open the door to the gym. It was the second time they sought Rayne out in this place, but today Clint hadn’t come along. Perhaps he had been reassured enough, which wasn’t the case with Steve or Tony. They would go about it differently though today.

Rayne was on the floor, doing sit-ups, sparing the sandbag this time. He must have going at it for some time now, judging by the colour of his face and the beads of sweat trailing down his cheeks. He thought them worthy of a quick glance, but didn’t stop his work out.

“Good morning, Christian.” In the past Tony had been way better at breaking the ice, but you had to start somewhere and Rayne even stopped half-way to quirk an eyebrow, and then went back to his sit-ups. “You’ve only looked into my personal file now?”

“Should we have done differently?”

“Given the task I am working an? Sure. I would have looked into it the very first second. It’s rather funny… Have you thought until now that my name was Sebastian?”

Tony shrugged awkwardly. “Haven’t thought about it. Loki introduced himself as Loki, why shouldn’t you do the same thing?”

“Because I am not a psychopath? Or because I am playing a character? Anyway, name’s Christian Rayne. Nice to meet you.”

Steve and Tony shared a look and Tony was in the mood to make friends. “Cool, can I call you Chris?”

“No.”

“Alright, Chris, we were just here to ask you…”

“If you are going to ask if I feel that I am in over my head or if I am uncomfortable with sleeping with him, don’t waste my time.” Rayne sat up completely and reached for the towel next to him, wiping his face.

Steve, clearly the one who was actually feeling uncomfortable, cleared his throat. “That’s not why we’re here. We were interested in knowing how long do you think that… this mission will still go on. How much time will you need?”

Rayne’s features relaxed, clearly more content with that kind of question. “Hard to tell. I know what I need to say and none these things can be said without set-up. The hardest part is done, seeds got planted. I need to make him believe that I could agree with everything that is going on in his mind. That takes more than one meeting since I can’t just outright say one day ‘By the way I hate the Avengers and I am perfectly okay with killing people if it suits your purpose’.”

Tony nodded in agreement. “That does seem a bit heavy-handed.”

“That’s why it needs time. He likes the idea of letting me in, but it takes more than that. Maybe a month. I don’t know.”

The idea of Rayne having to spend another month with Loki had Steve paling and Tony tried to appear unfazed. “A month… alright. What’s a month…? So how is Loki in bed?”

At least Steve managed not to gasp, but he still hissed in clear offence. “Tony!”

Rayne on the other hand smirked. It was the first time they saw anything close to a smile from him when he wasn’t with Loki. “I suggest you watch the video, Mr. Stark.”

“I was asking a perfectly legit question and how you make me feel like a pervert.”

“What would happen if everyone felt that way? Should they all turn their back to the video to honour my privacy? There was no privacy, I was doing my job and I need people to look out for me.”

“Yeah, I get that when it’s live, alright, but now? Asking for the video now would just be creepy. So I am curious, maybe a bit fucked up. I can’t help wondering. On a scale from 1 to 10?”

“For the love of God, please Tony.” Steve’s voice was close to a frustrated moan. “He just said that it was his job.”

“Just because it’s a job that doesn’t mean he doesn’t notice what’s going on.”

Still somewhat bemused Rayne stood up. “I’ve had way worse.”

“Did you have better?”

“I’m going to hit the showers. Have a nice day, Mr. Stark, Captain Rogers.” Rayne walked off and Tony had Steve staring at him in outrage. “What?”

“I can’t believe you asked that!”

“It’s all fine, Cap.” Sighing Tony patted him on the shoulder. “You saw that? He half-smiled. You’ve seen that before? He is under constant pressure and lethal danger anytime that he is with Loki. Then he gets here and everybody is super-serious, everything gets analysed, he has to explain himself and then it’s back to Loki. Don’t you think he wants to hear a joke every once in a while? Even if it’s a bad one?”

Steve seemed to debate with himself for a moment before muttering grudgingly “You could have made another joke. A better one.”

 ***

_I have a bottle of tequila, limes, pizza and a DVD of Pulp Fiction. You’re missing out. 7 o’clock?_

_Sounds good. A bit early though. 8 o’clock?_

_Alright. Be on time ;)_

_***_

The last time Loki had told Rayne that he was gonna be late, he had broken into a museum. Good chance that he was going to do it again. Especially since he was carrying around information about a certain exhibit.

“What is it anyway?”

“A piece of parchment. Dated about 1100. According to the historian we interviewed it’s French and pretty unexciting. An inventory list. Nothing fancy, actually the most boring stuff. Things a janitor would need.” Natasha handed out the transcription and translation which Steve briefly scanned over. She was right, there was nothing of interest to be found there. At least nothing on the surface. “Perhaps it’s a code?”

“Or there is hidden information on the parchment and Loki knows how to make it visible. He’s an expert at that.” Thor pointed out and asked if they could get the parchment to examine, but Natasha instantly negated. “The museum wasn’t thrilled about us approaching them in the first place. The parchment is part of the exhibition which is just a loan from a French collector. Nobody is touching any of this stuff.”

Too bad. “Okay, there is nothing obviously interesting about it, but Loki wants it and there is a good chance that he is going to try to steal it tonight. How should we go about it?” Tony looked around questionably and Steve tried to figure out what would be the best strategy. “All the information we have on this is too vague to try to seriously capture him at the museum. If we tried and we failed, he would know that something had tipped us off and he would naturally suspect Rayne. That’s why too risky. On the other hand… Loki might hurt people at the museum and we can’t let that happen either.”

“Right, but how are we supposed to approach this? If he shows up there to steal the parchment and we get there one minute later, he will know that something is up and that could endanger more people than otherwise. Especially Rayne.” Clint tapped his pen against the table and the entire room was silent except for that one sound.

Eventually Steve came up with a suggestion. “Asking the museum to close early would be too suspicious and…”

All their phones went off at the same time and their discussion came to an end as it had started way too late anyway. Loki was already at the museum.

 ***

It took Rayne about three seconds to answer his phone. “I’m listening.”

“He took the parchment, three people are dead and several injured.” Clint was quick to get to the point, because there was nothing that agents hated more than unnecessary information and wasting time.

As expected Rayne reacted perfectly calmly. “Details?”

“He wasn’t trying to be subtle. He walked in there, trashed the display cabinet and when a security guard pulled his gun on him Loki threw him against the wall. Cracked his skull open. Situation then escalated further. Thor and Stark got there Loki had already been done with two more guards. Almost seemed like he was taking his time, sticking around. There was a short fight, then he just teleported away. He got hurt though.” Clint tried his best to stay neutral in his summary when his blood was boiling.

Him, Steve and Natasha had arrived at the museum to be greeted with a bloodied and chaotic scene. Crying and panicked visitors, glass shards all over the floor and a few brave people who were still trying to save the poor guards’ lives. In vain of course. One could reproach Loki of a lot of things, but he definitely wasn’t sloppy. Yes, the museum had been turned into a chaos, but there was still order to it. Loki didn’t spill blood, because he had no other way to get out of this situation. No, he found enjoyment in it. Clint had already seen the video feed from Tony’s suit.

Loki had smiled. Not even in a deranged, psychotic way. Just honest enjoyment, a person having fun. By unnecessarily killing people when he could have easily teleported out of the place.

“Hurt how? Is he not going to show up?”

“No, it wasn’t bad. A shard of glass slashed his hand, but he didn’t bat an eyelid. It looked nasty though.” Clint really hoped that it hurt like a bitch.

“Alright. What about the media coverage?”

“Same as usual. We’re trying to keep his face out of the newspapers. Did he contact you?”

“No. As far as I am concerned he is still supposed to show up here in two hours.”

Right, something that Clint absolutely wasn’t looking forward to. It almost made him nauseous to think that Loki could murder three people and then easily go on to have a date. Unfortunately it definitely sounded like something Loki would have no trouble doing, that complete lack of conscience was horrifying. “Okay. That’s all from my part. Take care, Rayne. He has tasted blood tonight and you never know with this guy when he might want more.”

“Thanks for keeping me up to date, agent Barton.” Rayne ended the call and Clint sighed loudly. Dealing with undercover agents was the worst. Sometimes even with Natasha. They got so wrapped up in their mission and new persona that everything which might distract them got ignored. Also there was this idea that their work was more intelligent and therefore more important than anybody else’s. Which was even worse in Rayne’s case since that was an ambitious son of a bitch. And cold, but you had to be in this job or it was going to break you apart. A person had to have ice water running through their veins if they were supposed to kiss or touch Loki after he cut up innocent people.

Even worse, they all would have to watch it.

Two hours later the cameras were doing their job, Clint was on the edge of his seat and Steve was sitting next to him. Back straight, muscles tensed. They were watching Rayne zapping through TV channels, lying on the couch and the ordinariness of the situation was deeply upsetting.

“Maybe we should be considering getting him there. Forget about his hide-out. He’s getting familiar with the apartment. We’ll have Rayne invite him order and then we’ll go in and capture him. We’re losing way too much time and he keeps killing people.” Steve had a dark look on his face, one that Clint wasn’t familiar with. One that shouldn’t really be on Steve’s face, it didn’t fit.

“That wouldn’t be different from approaching him on the street. Sure, he likes messing around with Rayne, but he still can turn around anytime and fuck it all up. Going in there we would have a surprise advantage for about one second and then he’d gone. The whole reason Rayne is doing this, so we can create a situation where we have the perfect opportunity. Believe me, it’s not there yet. Rayne is dancing on the wire here to get us somewhere, deciding that we would just wait for Loki to enter the apartment and storm in… that would be pushing Rayne off the wire. It’s fucked up, but we gotta wait.”

Clint didn’t necessarily agree with everything he just said himself, but he knew it was the truth. What would be the point in trying to gain Loki’s trust and maybe even affection if they were just going to throw it all away for a surprise attack. It might be hard now, but if they did it right, there might be a chance to hopefully lock Loki away for good.

Nodding his head Steve made a weary sound and rubbed one hand over his eyes. “I know… I know… but the floor of the museum was covered in blood and now we’re going to watch him having fun on a date…”

There wasn’t anything left to say, so Clint merely squeezed Steve’s shoulder and then turned back to the screens. About 20 minutes later Rayne got up from the couch because of a knock on his door. They were off to a terrible start when there was instantly a kiss instead of a real greeting. Although it was making Clint feel sick, he had to admit that this ability was somewhat admirable. Getting so close to somebody who was repulsive in every single way and could snap at any second.

“You’re really enjoying letting me wait, don’t you?” Rayne had that sweet look on his face which didn’t work if you knew him just the slightest bit personally. Luckily Loki didn’t.

“Why change something that’s obviously working?”

Shaking his head Rayne smiled. “Come on, take off your jacket and get into the living room. I’m hungry and the pizza is getting cold.”

Loki did as he was told and Rayne was quick to grab his wrist. “What did you do?” He was clearly referring to white bandages wrapped around Loki’s hand. Steve audibly growling and Clint balled his hand into a fist.

“Cut myself on some glass.” Completely unbothered, as if he had broken a bottle. Right now Clint played the thought of going with Steve’s idea. Go in there and put an arrow into Loki’s head.

Rayne took Loki’s hand into both of his own. “Does it hurt? Did you have a doctor look at it?”

They could see his thumb stroking over Loki’s bandage and Clint needed to remember some techniques to keep his calm. This was just the very beginning, things would only get worse.

“No, it doesn’t hurt. It’s nothing. Especially nothing you should worry about.” Loki pulled his hand away and kissed Rayne on the cheek. “You said something about pizza.”

So they settled down on the couch in the living room and Rayne had actually done a nice job of setting things up. The pizza was on a big plate on the couch table, surrounded by a bottle of tequila, a bottle of water, a lime, several glasses and a bowl full of sweets. So this was how Loki spent the night after spilling blood and guts. Comfy evening with his sort of boyfriend. Clint needed to hit something.

“I like this. Thank you…”

“It’s no big thing and it’s also for me, so no need to thank me. Now shut up, I wanna watch the movie.”

Clint and Steve were in for one and a half hours of not very much happening, since Loki and Rayne were indeed watching the movie. The setting was nonetheless antagonizing. Loki lying on his back, Rayne resting his head on his shoulder, hand on his stomach.

Undercover agents had to have skin as thick as an elephant.

They actually watched the entire movie until Rayne decided that he was actually going to do something. “You know I was thinking about you again this morning.”

“About kicking my ass?”

“No, as long as you don’t give me a reason to.” Rayne winked and sat up to pour both of them a glass of tequila. Could Loki get drunk? After partying with Thor Clint heavily doubted that. Then again, they weren’t blood relatives.

“I was rather thinking about what you said last night. About my ex-girlfriend. I wasn’t entirely honest.” Rayne handed Loki a glass and downed his own in one go.

Loki raised an eyebrow at him. “Without the lime?”

“There is still the entire bottle left. Enough time and opportunity.”

Shrugging softly Loki drank up his tequila. “What weren’t you honest about?”

“I told you that I slapped her after her great idea of planting the scissors in my shoulder. Which I did, but I still held back somewhat, because… you know, she is a woman. Looking back I kinda wish I had knocked her teeth out.”

Loki’s reaction wasn’t very exciting, he hummed in a way that didn’t give away what he was thinking. “A rather violent idea. Why do you tell me that?”

“Because I want to know what you think about that. What you think about me feeling that way.” Rayne looked at Loki and seemed so perfectly open, nothing mattered more in that moment than finding out what was going on in Loki’s head. Not the psychotic stuff though.

Tilting his head Loki reached out and ran his fingers through Rayne’s messed up hair. “I think that you’re perfectly normal. Everybody has these thoughts, most people are just way too coward to admit it. Because they think that it’s wrong or amoral. What’s wrong about wanting to get even after somebody screwed you over in the worst possible way? You can’t fuck someone over when you aren’t ready to bear the consequences… sometimes the consequences can be somebody knocking your teeth out. I’d prefer a simpler method though.”

Moving his head to give Loki better access Rayne hinted at a smile. “Go on. What method?”

“I guess violence can be incredibly satisfying, but it’s likely to get you into trouble since it leaves nasty traces. You could do much more damage with their social security number or by calling their car insurance and cancelling it. Most of the time their security standards are laughable.” Loki trailed off when he saw Rayne’s amused, almost joyful smile. “Are you serious?” There was laughter in his voice which caused Loki to shrug. “Sure. Nobody’s going to help you if you don’t help yourself. If you let somebody walk over you, they’ll do it again and again. So you gotta make sure that they know who they are messing with.”

It was sickening. So much about Loki playing nice. Now he wasn’t even trying to hide his foul character in front of Rayne. Watching the agent Clint could understand that the Rayne was angry about not already having a seat at the high table. Somebody doing such a good job should get some recognition.

“So if I might… for whatever reason do you wrong, would you react the same way with me? Get me into serious trouble instead of knocking my teeth out?” Rayne’s voice was soft, without a hint of concern. Just a regular question between two people who were still trying to get to know each other.

Completely unbothered Loki nodded. “Yes and since I like you, it’d be even worse. I’d probably ruin your life.”

Clint held his breath as the two of them were looking at each other. Silence settled in and Loki’s hand had stopped moving. One of them could snap at any moment and then it would all fall apart. What if Rayne for once got overwhelmed by the prospect of Loki fucking him up completely in every single way. With violence and manipulation.

“I guess that would be only fair.” Rayne finally stated, the smile back on his face, but this time it was more teasing than anything. If Loki was taken aback by this reaction, then they didn’t get to see it. Their kiss was intense, almost a bit messy, but eventually Rayne pulled back and poured them two new glasses.

“You are definitely something…” Rayne muttered amusedly and Loki answered with a smirk. “And you thought you had me all figured out.”

“Oh, I have you figured out. For the most part, but you’re a bit more complicated than expected. There’s something else I want to know by the way. I love your voice and the way you talk. I’d say you’re definitely British, but Loki is definitely not a British name. I haven’t asked you yet, because your family is a touchy subject, but we’ve had sex and you’ve had two tequilas. I feel entitled to ask now. Are you English? Scandinavian? Something entirely different?”

Clint grudgingly had to admit that Rayne had some balls. Right after Loki making clear that he wouldn’t hesitate to make him miserable and to hurt him, Rayne went for the most touchy subject. They could only hope that Rayne indeed had a plan.

Loki had his still full glass in his hand, his face a little too blank. That man was definitely trying to not show any emotion. “Something else entirely. That fits me quite well I think.”

“How so?”

Without taking a single sip Loki put the glass away. “Because I don’t know what I am. My parents first wouldn’t let me know and when I found out that I wasn’t their child, they only insisted that it didn’t matter. They considered me their son, so it didn’t matter where I came from.”

Rayne started his show. “Seriously? That’s fucked up. They didn’t tell you anything?”

For the first time Loki didn’t look in control or at ease. Even his shrug looked forced. “Not really and at some point I didn’t want to ask anymore.”

Yeah, poor Loki. That absolutely made up for everything.

Frowning Rayne poured himself a new glass. “Wait… I’m not sure if I got all of this right. Did your parents just brush the whole thing off?”

“My mother told me they didn’t want me to feel different.” Loki said simply and Rayne wouldn’t let it go. “But you are different, aren’t you?”

Steve and Clint both flinched. No, he was taking it too far. Either Loki was going to snap or he was going to shut down completely. Thor had made it perfectly clear that this subject was like a deep abyss. Dark and full of monsters.

Loki tilted his head up, his jaw was visibly tensed and Clint could tell that he was clenching his teeth. Damn, Rayne had wanted too much, too soon. This was going to set them back weeks. Maybe it was even going to end the entire operation. Or Loki would decide that he should ruin Rayne right now.

Except that he didn’t.

“Yes.” Loki said quietly, his fingers absently curling around one of the couch cushions. “I guess I am.”

“Not acknowledging that is cruel… you should be glad that you’re different. Your parents sound like awful people.” Rayne was selling it in a great way. He sounded disgusted and dismissive at the same time. Regretting that he had brought it up in the first place.

What else was needed to change the atmosphere? A new smile made its way on Loki’s face and he laughed. Short but bright. “I agree… but everyone else doesn’t. They believe that it shouldn’t matter.”

“It does matter and most people are boring idiots who share the same opinion, because they are way too scared to step outside their little box.” Rayne said before surprising everybody by straddling Loki’s outstretched legs and cupping his face. “You on the other hand… are anything but boring and not scared of anything.”

“Got me all figured out, haven’t you?” Loki shared his smile, his eyes sparkling.

“Sure…” Leaning forward Rayne kissed him quickly. “And what about you?”

Raising his hand Loki trailed on finger along Rayne’s right eyebrow and then over his cheekbone. “Still holding back. So many things and I’m curious to see them when I bring them all out.”

“You think that I’d let you do that?”

“I think that you want me to and I’m going to start right now.” Loki did that by kissing him and Clint immediately knew that they were done with the talking. One kiss led into the next one and hands started wandering.

Awkwardly Clint cleared his throat and turned to Steve who was already looking for a new spot that he could fix his eyes on. “I guess you’re done for the night, Cap.”

“I agree.”

 ***

Definitely the strangest way to start the day. Tony was sipping his coffee while Rayne was setting up the table. Loki was still in the bathroom and Tony had accepted that it was stupid to try to not watch him getting dressed. What if he slipped a couple of daggers into his clothes and nobody noticed?

No daggers. Loki joined Rayne in the kitchen, kissing him before helping to prepare breakfast. Very simple, toast and scrambled eggs. Totally ordinary and unexciting.

To Tony’s surprise it was also a very silent affair. At least until they sat down and starting eating. “Mind if we listen to the news?” Loki pointed at the radio and Rayne shook his head. “Go ahead.”

Again – unexciting. Or at least Tony thought so. Then the radio host started talking about the museum incident. The Avengers had prevented a hostage taking. Unfortunately the terrorist had killed three people before being killed himself.

Tony grimaced when he thought about the fact that he still had to give an interview about that made-up story. At least SHIELD had worked out a nice script for them.

As soon as the report had ended Rayne huffed in annoyance, but continued eating his toast. Raising an eyebrow Loki asked about it. “What is it?”

“Nothing. I am just wondering when the Avengers became an anti-terrorist unit. I thought people had to go through special training to do that. Obviously it’s enough to wear a robot suit or to be an alien with a big hammer in a completely ridiculous outfit. I hope the victims’ families sue the hell out of them.”

Tony’s mouth dropped open and Loki burst out laughing. It made him look completely different, friendly, real, almost human. Unless you knew what he was laughing about. Tony’s fingers tightened almost painfully around his cup as Rayne winked at Loki.

God, this madness couldn’t be over soon enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you guys think - Does Rayne have him? 
> 
> How long until this goes all horribly wrong?


	8. I just might know who you are

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> Let's get to it ;)

“A bit on the nose maybe, but all in all… A pretty fruitful day.” Natasha nodded contently and Tony started his inner countdown. The redhead had to know, there was no way she wasn’t doing this intentionally.

Rayne didn’t miss a beat. “Mind going into detail on that, agent Romanoff?”

That smile was so sweet, it was poisonous. “Taking a hit at the Avengers so soon? Just a bit obvious.”

“It was on the news, people normally talk about the news. He wanted to listen to them, not me. It was the perfect situation.”

Tony couldn’t help himself. “Yeah, but it’s the Avengers. Not the most universal topic to hate on.”

Raising an eyebrow at him Rayne cocked his head and Tony couldn’t help but wonder what he would be like in a real, normal relationship. These two completely opposite sides were terribly confusing. “The Avengers are public matter, Mr. Stark. People talk about you and what I’ve said yesterday is actually a point that gets brought up fairly often.”

“Huh, I guess I gotta watch the news more often.” Tony shrugged, because all he had wanted to do was to provoke a fight between Natasha and Rayne. Honestly, he wasn’t sure who would win.

“Alright, as long as you don’t start whining about how much of an idiot you think Thor is.” Natasha left it at that and Rayne ever so subtly rolled his eyes. These meetings had become so much more interesting with Rayne present.

Finally Fury decided that since he was the boss he should take some control, right? “Any specific plans for today that we should know about?”

“No, I believe it might be the better move to wait until he calls. I don’t see him being very interested in somebody running after him.”

“I disagree.” Thor shook his head. “Loki enjoys constant affection. He needs to be the centre of attention.”

Why hadn’t these people learned yet that Rayne didn’t like it when somebody contradicted him? That guy was so good at looking down on people. “Whenever he is with me, he is the centre of attention. That doesn’t mean I’m going to run after him. He wouldn’t like that.”

Determinedly Thor kept shaking his head. “No, I disagree. My brother is needy, constantly thirsty for someone to admire him. He would easily get upset about this lack of attention.”

Leaning back in his chair Rayne crossed his legs to show off how totally relaxed he was about all that. “I don’t believe so.”

“You should. I have known Loki for over a thousand years.”

Tony started another countdown.

“No he is angry at you. One thousand years and you have no idea what he actually is like.”

Oh yes, Tony’s dreams were coming true.

Thor’s entire body jerked, as if he was physically trying to reject the words which he had just heard. Somebody daring to have another opinion on Loki than him? Okay, Clint was doing that all the time. Somebody claiming to know Loki better than him. As soon as Thor had recovered from the blow his face darkened and he definitely wasn’t going to let this go. “What are you insinuating?”

If Tony couldn’t get Natasha and Rayne to go at it, he could make this conversation way more awkward. “I don’t think he is insinuating anything. Rayne just outright said that you didn’t know Loki very well.”

“I hope for your own sake, agent Rayne, that you aren’t arrogant enough to believe that you know my brother, because you’ve shared his bed a few times. He’s had his positives sides, but for a long time now he has been infected with darkness and incredibly selfishness that doesn’t allow him to take an interest in anything else but himself.” Thor wasn’t talking, he was holding a speech. Obviously trying to make everybody understand how important this was. The truth and nothing but the truth. Tony couldn’t care less, he merely wanted Loki off the streets, so no more people would end up that. He couldn’t give a fuck who knew Loki better.

Rayne thought about it differently though. “I guess this is why you need people like me for this kind of job. How would you ever be able to see through his lies or even manipulate him when you mistake his wish for understanding and acceptance for egocentricity?”

It was Steve who was asking the obvious question. “Are you defending Loki right now?”

One of the rare times that they heard Rayne honestly laugh. “God no. I’m just asking Thor to stop telling me how to do my job. I didn’t tell you how to deal with the museum incident either, did I?”

Fury slightly raised one hand. “I think it’s enough, Rayne.”

“Sure, director. I’ll stay at headquarters until Loki gets into contact “

Meeting was over, Rayne left and the Avengers were left to deal with a very pissed off god. “He is wrong. Loki won’t like it if Rayne makes him wait. It’s an easy way to lose his goodwill.”

 ***

Fourteen hours. That was how long it took Loki to call Rayne. No whining, no complaining, none of that. Especially no death threats for having to be the one who was calling the other.

“I hope you have no plans for tonight and if you do – cancel them.”

Demanding little shit

“Well hello to you too.” Rayne laughed softly and Tony could see Clint rolling his eyes. Both of them had still been at the headquarters when the ‘Loki is calling Rayne’ alarm had been set off. Why was Tony spending so much time here? Even Cap had gone home.

Anyway, Rayne wasn’t in the same room with them. Tony got why, he would be distracted by them also.

“Hello Sebastian.”

“That’s better. I actually do have plans tonight. I have a ton of dirty laundry to get through and even more ironing to do. Which happens in front of the TV, Game of Thrones episodes and red wine. How could you possibly top that?” Rayne was his playful self, at least the playful self that he liked to present to Loki.

“I guess you have to postpone that incredible entertainment if you want to join me watching an old men chase away his favourite daughter, only then to realise that the other two are only blood sucking witches who don’t want to bother with him. That realisation doesn’t really have much an impact since everyone gets violently murdered in the end away. Almost like Game of Thrones.”

Clint made a clueless gesture and Tony shrugged. “Sounds like every other Shakespeare work to me…”

It wasn’t really a surprise that Rayne knew more about literature than both of them combined. “You want to go see King Lear?”

“Absolutely. Performance starts at 8 o’clock, I’d like to have dinner before that.”

“Sure, but… wait, I’ve heard about that new production. It has been sold out for months. How did you get tickets?” Rayne sounded excited and maybe he really was, Tony could easily see him being a geek. A very hot and kinda dickish geek, but nonetheless a geek.

Loki responded in his most casual way. “I stole them.”

In response Rayne laughed, although Loki so obviously wasn’t joking. “Okay, so dinner at 6? You’ve already chosen a restaurant or do I get to have a say in that?”

“Not a chance. I’ll text you the address. I hope you like Norwegian.”

“Never tried that and never thought I would.”

“That’s certainly going to change. I’ll see you tonight then.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

The conversation ended and Clint snorted. “So much about Loki getting upset if Rayne doesn’t run after him 24/7. Free tickets for Shakespeare and probably fancy food… Doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Right and now SHIELD has to screw some people out off their Shakespeare tickets. You know what isn’t too bad? We could hang out backstage.” Tony hadn’t seen Shakespeare in years, so why not combine work with free entertainment. It was odd, but the dates were getting more and more relaxing, at least for Tony. Watching over Rayne was so much easier when you could be pretty sure that Loki wasn’t going to drop his tolerable act any second.

“I can’t believe that Loki is so into this…” Clint was mumbling absently, but nevertheless still clearly trying to attract Tony’s attention.

“Oh, come on. If there is one person on this entire planet who is into Shakespeare, it should be Loki. Just listen to the way he talks…”

With a dismissive gesture Clint probably tried to tell him to not be stupid. “Not the snobbish arts stuff, I’m talking about Rayne. Sure, I get it that it must be nice to have somebody to converse with and who says no to sex with an attractive guy, but I honestly didn’t expect Rayne to stay interesting for him that long. Or that he would talk to him that freely.”

Tony would have to agree, but he couldn’t help thinking about what Rayne had said. At several occasions now. “I tend to believe the super-agent here. Loki wants to talk, he wants somebody to agree with him and Rayne could be that. Even complete loners like company from time to time.”

“Right… and I thought Natasha had the worst job when she had to infiltrate your life.”

“Fuck you, Clint.”

 ***

SHIELD had done a nice enough job, setting them up in a room backstage at the theatre. So for once all the Avengers could watch their favourite program together. Bruce had declined for obvious reasons which left Tony sitting next to a very sulky Thor. Yeah, it had to suck to be so clearly wrong about something.

Loki had been in a great mood from the very start of the evening. Him and Rayne had met up in front of the restaurant and then Tony found out that Scandinavian cuisine probably wasn’t for him. He preferred good Old Italian over everything. Seafood chowder and fish. Yeah, whatever floats your boat.

The real discovery of the day was that Loki could speak Icelandic and Norwegian. Which didn’t impress Rayne nearly as much as it should have when Loki ordered for them. “You are such a show-off, darling.”

Clint instantly asked what had to be on everybody’s mind, looking at Thor. “Can you do that?”

Slightly grumpy Thor responded without much interest. “The All-Speak allows Asgardian to understand and to be understood by every being.”

“Right, but that doesn’t mean you actually speak the language, right? You just keep talking English, the other one speaks whatever they are speaking and you just understand each other through magic. He is actually speaking Icelandic… which is a fucking hard language to learn.” Clint waiting for Thor to give another explanation, but Thor just continued to sulk.

On the screens Loki was raising an eyebrow at Rayne. It was clearly visibly on his face that he had expected a different reaction to his language skills. Perhaps the very first time that he didn’t look completely pleased with Rayne. “That’s all you’re going to say? That I am a show-off?”

“Are you going to deny that you are?”

Tony liked teasing Rayne, that smirk of him could give a person interesting ideas.

Loki responded with his own grin. “No really.”

“That’s good. Modesty is such a boring treat anyway.”

“Yeah, but people are still showing off to get a reaction. Which I didn’t get.” Loki was taking a sip from his wine and Tony wondered for a moment if the god might actually be petty enough to get upset about Rayne not admiring him enough.

Rayne himself was completely calm as he leaned back in his chair, smiling openly at Loki. “You want me to be honest?”

“I don’t know that yet, let’s try.” Loki made an inviting gesture.

“Alright. I am not that impressed with you speaking two Nordic languages.” Rayne clearly enjoyed himself there and Loki’s scowl was definitely entertaining. “Let’s get a second opinion on that.”

Turning around Loki perfectly charmingly interrupted the people at the table right next to them, who thank god weren’t agents. “I am so sorry to hijack your conversation, ladies, but we an outsider opinion on an issue we’ve been discussing. Would you be kind enough to help us out?”

A bit taking aback the two women agreed, so Loki continued with the sweetest, non-serial killer smile. “My boyfriend here just learned that I am fluent in Icelandic and Norwegian and he doesn’t think it’s very impressive. Would you agree?”

Tony was perfectly sure that nobody heard the answer, because they were all deafened by the sound of their jaws dropping to the floor. Had he really just said that? Boyfriend? Did Loki just make that relationship official? Fuck, maybe this mission was much further advanced that they had thought.

It seemed like the women were on Loki’s side, that he was an impressive son of a bitch and Loki turned back with the utter look of satisfaction on his face. Which only got worse when he saw Rayne’s big, wide eyes. “See? That’s much more how I like it.”

“Did you just introduce me as your boyfriend to a couple of strangers?”

“To a couple of lovely ladies who think I’m immensely impressive. Any problems with that?” That smirk wasn’t going anywhere, that much was obvious.

Rayne quickly shook his head. “No, it’s perfectly fine… but I still need to explain why I don’t think it’s particularly impressive.”

Loki indicated him to go on.

“Maybe you think I didn’t notice, but I did. You still haven’t told me where you’re from or your nationality and therefore Icelandic could easily be your mother tongue. What the hell do I know? It’s all a question of context… or maybe you’re only working with Scandinavian artefacts at the archive. That’s it.”

Loki slowly nodded. “Alright, I’ll let you off the hook for now.”

Rayne winked at him. “You will have to find another way to impress me tonight.”

Clint couldn’t hold back hearing that. “Ewwhh… Keep it PG-13 for God’s sake.”

Luckily for all of them they did just that. Before the entrées the conversation took a rather serious turn when they went back to that little bombshell that Loki had dropped minutes ago. Another perfect performance from Rayne. Nervously fidgeting around with his hands before placing them on the table cloth Rayne cleared his throat. “I just want to say that… What you said before about us being an item – I’d like that. Because up until now I really enjoyed all the time we’ve spend together.”

Damn, that guy was really good at pulling this off. So good that even Loki was smiling. “And yet you’re still in for a world of surprises.”

That was more terrifying than anything they’ve heard before.

 ***

After dinner there was Shakespeare and after Shakespeare there was a ride home in a taxi which meant they had to rely on audio once more.

“So did you like it?”

“It’s Lear, it’s a classic. It was a good production. I didn’t like Edmund though.”

“Why’s that?”

Tony was going to fall asleep over this talk. Why didn’t they just sit down and started writing a critique for the New York Times. No, instead Tony had to listen why Rayne hadn’t liked Edmund’s portrayal. Who had been Edmund again?

“He is the best character in the play and the actor wasn’t up for that task. The text and dialog can be so perfect and beautiful… what does it help if the actor can’t deliver? It’s a shame. The bastard speech was ruined.”

“Now you’re being a bit harsh.”

Rayne sighed. “Okay, maybe, but it’s an important part of the play. How is the audience supposed to sympathize with him when we can’t get his motivation? He is smart, reckless and very angry. Sick of always being in second place behind his sweet, boring and ideal brother who is going to inherit everything and Edmund isn’t going to get anything, because he is a bastard. Then all that skilful manipulation. He is a great character and I don’t think the actor did a good enough job. Now what’s your take on it? Time to impress me.”

They could hear Loki’s laughter. “I have nothing to say. I am merely enjoying your character analysis. People are rooting all the time for the villains in actions movies, I don’t hear that so often when it comes to Shakespeare and here you are.”

“They can be fascinating. The only thing I don’t like about Edmund is that he tries to repent at the end of the story. If you have a good villain, then let him be bad and go through with it. Also he had every right to be pissed off since his family definitely screwed him over.”

Natasha audibly huffed. “And that’s not heavy-handed?”

“It’s not Rayne’s fault that Thor’s and Loki’s life story perfectly matches a Shakespeare play.”

Loki also caught on to it though. “Why do I have the feeling that you’re saying so much of that stuff only to score points with me, because you know that I have a troubled relationship with my family?”

As always Rayne had the perfect answer. “Because you are smart, but I’m just giving you my opinion… and I might dwell on few things a bit longer, because I know that you like hearing them.”

“That’s pretty manipulative of you.”

“Don’t pretend that you don’t like it.”

No more talking, just kissing noises and Tony was going to retch sooner or later.

 ***

Tony couldn’t tell if it was a good or bad thing that nothing of interest had happened from that moment on. More flirting, kissing, drinks when they got to Rayne’s place and afterwards they had sex, naturally. It was a sad moment when you realised that Loki’s love life was more fulfilling than his own.

They went on two more dates that week with Loki staying overnight both times and Rayne was slowly but surely revealing to Loki that he was insane. Small things, casual remarks. While reading the newspaper or watching the news.

“How wonderful, now they’re going to spend even more tax money on processing that piece of shit. Just shoot him in the head and be done with it before some seedy lawyer gets him off the hook.”

“I know everybody is entitled to their opinion and everybody has the right to vote, but with people that stupid having the same rights as me and you… no wonder the entire system doesn’t work and is about to collapse.”

Most of them time Loki merely hummed in response, but Tony could see his eyes appreciating every word that left Rayne’s mouth. Another week passed and apart from Loki laying low and not killing anybody there was no progress at all. Which had Fury a bit impatient and urge Rayne to finally get them to Loki’s place.

Perhaps it was that moment that Tony realised it wasn’t all about capturing Loki. No, Fury was also after whatever magical shit Loki had maybe stored at his place. Rayne had reacted annoyed, putting on his ‘Let me do my fucking job’ face, but he had remained silent and had went to the safe house, waiting for Loki.

Tonight was a stay-at-home date. Tacos and TV. They were lying on the couch, Rayne’s head on Loki’s chest, Loki’s fingers in his hair. Tony was actually playing on his phone and Clint reading a book when Rayne spoke up. His voice was soft and gentle. “Any reason why I get never invited to your place?”

That had Tony and Clint sitting up straight.

Not Loki though, his fingers were still lazily running through Rayne’s strands. “Because I really like yours.”

“That excuse is not worthy of you. You can do better.”

Loki didn’t seem bothered by the topic, smiling lightly. “Do you want to see my place?”

Rayne shifted around so he could look up at Loki, grabbing his hand and entangling their fingers. “Sure I do. It has almost been two months and I’ve never been to your place. I’d like to see how you leave. Check out your book collection. Raid your fridge. Smell at your clothes. Sleep in your bed – with you. I don’t want to sound whiny, but by now it feels like you’re keeping it from me intentionally.”

Smiling down at him Loki replied sweetly. “Well, maybe I am keeping things from you.”

“I am sure you are, but your place shouldn’t be one of them. Give it another week and I might think you’re just here for the free food.”

It wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, that much was obvious and Loki knew that too. Nevertheless he stopped smiling and he brushed his fingers over Rayne’s cheek. “There is no way you can even imagine how hard it is to spark my interest and then it’s even harder to keep it. You are so shockingly good at it and I know I still haven’t seen everything that’s going on behind these eyes. I can’t wait to see it though. When I bring it all out.”

Rayne was clearly looking for words, swallowing softly. “Someday you’ll have to explain to me what you mean by that.”

Still smiling Loki grabbed Rayne’s shoulder and pushed slightly. “Come on, sit up. There’s something I want to give to you.”

“Okay, I am not sure if I like that.” Clint muttered, reaching for his radio just in case.

Tony watched uncomfortably as Rayne sat up and then immediately slid into Loki’s lap to wrap his arms around his neck. “What is it?”

As if to answer his question Loki leaned in and kissed him. One of those gentle, intimate kisses that Tony could stand the least. Nonetheless it wasn’t a kiss that Loki wanted to give him. That much was for sure. When they pulled apart Rayne rested his forehead against Loki’s. “That’s fine too, you know? I just… I want to know all of you.”

“Look here…” Loki raised his left hand and Rayne did as he was told before raising an eyebrow at his fake-boyfriend.

The smile on Loki’s face was seriously getting under Tony’s skin. It looked so open, honest and caring. Like there was no place he would rather be right now. Curling his fingers Loki formed a fist and when he opened it again, something was falling from his open palm. It took Tony a second glance to make out that it was a necklace. The chain was wrapped around Loki’s fingers, a round, golden, black pendant was dangling from it.

Now that was a fucked-up magic trick. To Rayne’s credit he didn’t flinch, but his eyes went wide while staring at Loki. It was that second that people needed before they could react. Freaking out? Disbelief? Rayne went for the awkward laugh. “Okay… what… How did you do that?”

Loki simply kept smiling. “One of my many talents. It’s a gift. Come here.”

Rayne hesitated for a second before bowing his head and Loki slipped the long necklace around his neck. “I hope it pleases and I would appreciate it if you wore it all the time.”

Red flag. Huge red flag.

“Seriously? All the time?” Rayne looked completely confused and Clint was already talking into his radio. “Thor? Do you have a good visual on this thing? Any idea what it could be?”

Tony wasn’t trying to listen to Clint, instead he kept his eyes on the screen.

“I got it for you. It’s supposed to protect you… when I am not around.”

Swallowing softly Rayne took the pendant between his fingers and took a close look at it. “Protect me? Do you think I can’t do that myself?”

Loki shook his head. “Not the way I can.”

The teasing tone had stopped a while ago. All this was dead-serious and Rayne couldn’t mess this up, because Loki was hinting at being more than he appeared to be. This was definitely bigger than the boyfriend situation. Rayne pretended to let all sink in, still examining the pendant and Clint let Tony know what Thor had said. “Big guy isn’t sure. Could indeed be a token of protection. Or cursed. Impossible to tell what Loki did with it. We’ll need to check it out.”

Eventually Rayne was looking back up and he was serious, maybe a bit confused and afraid. All the little things that a single expression could convey. “Loki… seriously, how did you do that? Your hand was right in front of my face and I could see that there was nothing in it.”

“Maybe I’ll explain it to you sometime.” With the same smile on his lips Loki leaned in for a kiss, but Rayne moved away which had Tony holding his breath. That couldn’t be good.

“Loki, there’s something… at first I thought it was stupid, so I didn’t say anything. But now…”

Clint and Tony obviously had the same thought at the exact same time and the archer was instantly out of his chair. “What is he doing?”

With a frown of confusion Loki watched as Rayne reached into his jeans pocket to pull out his phone. No, no, he wasn’t going to do that. Fury had been very clear on that.

Of course oblivious to the horror he was putting Clint and Tony through Rayne opened the gallery of his phone and then handed it Loki. “Is that you?”

The display of Rayne’s phone showed a blurred picture that some person in Stuttgart must have taken as Loki had pulled off his little show. There was Loki. In full armour and gear, including the helmet.

“Fuck…” Clint’s hoarse whisper perfectly summed up the situation as Loki’s smile in an instant faded away and his eyes lost that spark to turn completely cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? How is that reaction going to look like?


	9. I just need to know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> Yes, I know. That was a mean cliffhanger, so let's get to it :D

It could only have been seconds, but it felt like several eternities. That moment when Loki just kept looking at Rayne. No, that wasn’t just looking. There was so much going on in those green eyes. Poisonous, vicious green that was drilling holes into Rayne. Tony knew that it could still go either way. Then suddenly the smile and the softness of his features became distant memories of the past. Instead Tony could see the muscles hardening, tensing until Loki’s lips were forming a straight, white line. He was angry, furious and Tony could feel that the god was only seconds away from losing it, like he had done so often before.

That was the thing about expecting disaster to strike – expecting it didn’t prepare you for the inevitable hit. It came with full, sheer limitless force.

“Shit!”

Tony was out of his chair as Loki’s hand was shooting forward and wrapped itself around Rayne’s throat. The agent gasped in shock, maybe even panic. His phone dropped to the floor, as his own hands closed around Loki’s wrist to pull him away. “Loki…”

“How long did you know? What are you playing at?” Loki was sizzling and that couldn’t be the same person that he had talked only seconds ago about protecting the person he was strangling right now.

“I didn’t…” The words were barely audible, since Rayne’s windpipe was blocked and Tony was putting on his glove. “Come on, we have to get in there!”

Clint didn’t move and Tony was about to snap. “Barton! Move!”

“No.” Was the simple answer and Clint kept his eyes on the screen. “He is not giving us a distress signal.”

“Are you fucking kidding?! Loki is choking him!” Tony was yelling, moving towards the doors as Clint forcefully grabbed his arm while talking into his radio. “To all units – do not engage. Do not engage until you get a clear distress signal!”

Tony couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Were they supposed to watch a man die over some stupid SHIELD combat rules? Over protocol? “What are you…”

“Look! Rayne is an experienced agent who is trained for these situations! If he doesn’t give us one of the signals, we’re not going to interfere!” Clint’s seriousness stopped Tony dead in his tracks and for a second he could only stare at the archer who had already turned back to the screen.

This couldn’t be true. “Clint, he is killing him.”

“Rayne thinks he’s got it under control.”

Control? How was a god strangling you having things under control? Tony couldn’t just stand here and watch Loki killing just one more person. Yet that was exactly what he was doing. Watching long, pale fingers digging into the flesh of Rayne’s neck.

“What is it? What are you trying to achieve by telling me that you know?” Loki’s voice seemed to be spiked with nails, it was cutting and Rayne’s eyes were teary. That man couldn’t breathe, so why were they still…

A single word came over Rayne’s lips and the effort it took him could be heard and seen. “You…”

Tony was just about to go for the door a second time when Loki let go of Rayne off as abruptly as he had grabbed him. No, he wasn’t letting go, Loki tossed Rayne to the side like a discarded toy.

Tony collapsed back down on his chair, running both hands through his hair as he tried to calm himself down. They had to call this off. Right now. Or Rayne was going to end up dead.

Said man was now half lying on the couch, on hand on his neck, greedily sucking in air, gasping for it. Loki had got up and as he was pacing around the room green light was running down his limbs which made the slight changes of his looks disappear. The short brown curls turned into pitch black straight hair that almost reached his shoulders. The beard was gone, revealing clean shaven, white skin. A tensed jawline. Balled fists.

Why were they not getting Rayne out of there?

“Clint, it’s over.”

“Not as long as Rayne doesn’t say so.” Clint mumbled quietly and Tony could finally see that he wasn’t nearly as calm as he had seemed to be a few seconds earlier. What were they doing here? Playing with a man’s life?

Loki was still pacing as Rayne sat up, still coughing. “I don’t… I don’t want to achieve anything…”

Wrong thing to say. Loki abruptly stopped, spun around and his stare was filled with pure rage. The kind he usually reserved for Thor. “Don’t even try! You are smart and you want. You are so full of want, so full of desire for something you cannot even grasp yourself. You don’t go that far, you don’t tell me you know this without wanting to achieve something!”

Loki was yelling, so loudly his voice was cracking and the realisation washed over Tony like ice cold water. Rayne completely got him. That wasn’t the cold blank rage which Loki displayed when he burned down houses or slit throats. Now, Loki was so furious that he couldn’t handle himself, because he actually cared. They had had him and now?

“Alright, I…” Rayne scrambled up to his knees, his eyes travelling over Loki’s changed form and he definitely looked scared. Probably the first real emotion he presented Loki. “… I wasn’t sure! I thought that it might be you, because… you’re still so secretive about everything in your past and I just thought that… I had that feeling… then you… You just did that magic trick and I had to know! So I asked!”

“Why?! Why on earth would you ask about it?! When you think that I might be… that!” Loki made a hectic gesture with both hands, opening his palms and another part of hell broke loose. By unclenching his fists Loki released some sort of energy blast which brutally knocked over two chairs, the couch table and even pushed back the couch.

“Clint…” Tony was looking at him, searching for help, but the archer was again shaking his head. “Rayne still thinks he got this under control.”

“He clearly doesn’t!”

“Nor does Loki…”

Marks were already forming on Rayne’s neck and Tony was feeling sick as Rayne got up from the couch, approaching Loki only seconds after the violent display of his powers. “I told you that I wanted to know all of you! I almost spent every day of the last couple of weeks with you. Not because I… I don’t even know what you’re thinking right now! Why do you feel… so threatened?”

Tony wasn’t sure, but it seemed like Loki was trying to laugh and failing miserably at it. What eventually came out of his throat was a choked up sound that lacked dignity. “I don’t feel threatened. I could never feel threatened by a mere human being. Between the two of us only you should feel threatened. You will tell me what you are planning. Right now.”

Loki clenched one hand into a fist, it was shaking slightly and although he hadn’t said what the consequences would be like, Tony had a very clear idea. His hand was shimmering in a soft green. “Call it off, Rayne. You fucking idiot, just call it off.”

Unfortunately that arrogant son of a bitch had no idea what was good for him.

“Oh my God…” Clint’s voice had been reduced to a soft whisper and Tony felt his throat clenching. “What?”

“Just look…”

And Tony did look. For a moment he couldn’t tell what Clint was referring to. All he could see was Rayne carelessly playing with his life. Why would he even take another step closer to Loki? Then Tony saw it and it didn’t make any sense. As Rayne stepped forward, Loki backed away. The magic wielding god retreated faced with an unarmed, slightly shaking human being.

“What the hell is happening?”

“I have no idea.”

Rayne took another step forward and Loki’s hand began to shine brighter. “Loki, I have no idea what’s going, okay? I don’t have a plan… I stumbled over that picture weeks ago, I kinda thought it looked like you, but I brushed it off. Then a couple of minutes ago you did that.” Rayne tugged at the necklace around his neck. “I just wanna know who you are… what you can do and nothing I did justifies you… freaking out like that. I get it, I upset you, but I have no idea how, because you won’t tell me anything! Instead of giving me an explanation you strangle me!”

Loki tilted his head up, snarling. “I told you I would do horrible things if you were to do me wrong…”

“I know, but I haven’t done anything! I don’t even know… Listen, I’m hanging on a thread here. I don’t know what’s happening. I am freaked out and at the same time… Whatever you think I’m after, that’s not the case. I don’t have a fucking plan, I don’t know what I’m doing! I have no idea what’s going you and I don’t believe that you know either. Please, just let’s talk about it.”

Another step. Now Rayne only had to hold out his hand and he would be touching Loki. The god’s expression had changed. Anger mixed with confusion. “You expect me to believe that? You just stumbling into all of this? Without you knowing who I am?”

“You’re the man that I’ve been pretty much living with for the last couple of weeks. The rest… I guess you’ll have to tell me.” Rayne was whispering by this point. Loki was staring at him like a wild animal, with wide, blown out eyes. His hand wasn’t moving, still forming a fist. The green glow had disappeared though.

“What is wrong with you? You got to know what this means…” A new wave of green light travelled over Loki’s body and Tony growled as he saw the armour wrapping itself around the god.

Rayne winced at the next clear display of magic and Tony could see him swallow. What he didn’t do though was moving away. “I’ll decide what this means after you’ve told me… Please…” Closing his fingers about the pendant Rayne kept looking gently at Loki. “You gave me this for a reason, didn’t you? But not for protection from you…”

There was no reply from Loki. Not until Rayne threw himself at him. Face buried in Loki’s chest, arms wrapped around Loki’s shoulders Rayne mumbled something against the armour that Tony couldn’t quite make it out. He thought it was the word ‘Please’.

Then there was nothing but silence. Everything had gone down within a minute. Outbursts, violence, screaming and bleeding. In such a fast succession that the lack of any action felt like a slap in the face. Tony would have doubted that any of it had really happened if he didn’t see the result right in front of him. Rayne clinging to Loki who was staring down at him in clear, overwhelming disbelief. Like he couldn’t grasp the concept of what was happening to him.

“Sebastian…”

What used to be an angry snarl was now a hoarse whisper. It was neither aggressive, not gentle. Just lost. Almost mesmerized Tony watched as Loki awkwardly raised his hands and it was the first instance in which Tony wasn’t worried that Rayne might get hurt. Loki hugged him back and Tony released a long breath. “Geez and I thought that I was fucked up…”

“Be quiet. This is not over with.” Clint was still completely focused on the screen, his expression dark and pensive.

They still felt like sitting on a bed of nails as they watched Loki closing his eyes. From that second on all tension visibly left Loki’s body and perhaps it had been the only thing which had actually kept him on his feet. The couple slid down to the floor, arms still wrapped around each other. Dazed green light engulfed Loki as his armour turned back into his grey sweater and jeans. A scene so bizarre, it had to be artificial. Tony wasn’t quite able to grasp it.

An escalation of violence that was followed by shockingly raw gentleness. Wrapped up in silence the two remained on the floor, not moving and Tony and Clint let the seconds pass. Which then turned into minutes. Nobody was saying a thing.

Tony opened his mouth several times to say something, voice a thought, ask what the hell was going on. The words never came though, because the idea of being the one to break the silence made Tony uncomfortable. Instead Tony shot Clint a glance, searching for help. What was going to happen now? What were they supposed to do? How was this going?

“So…”

Rayne was speaking up softly, his face still against Loki’s chest and Tony flinched nonetheless.

“Your name is still Loki, right?”

Long, lean fingers were running slowly through Rayne’s hair. Every now and then Loki grabbed single strands, gently twisted them around his fingers and then straightened them back out. “Yes.”

Rayne turned his head merely a bit, but enough to let the cameras see half of his face. “Okay… so your name is Loki. You can do… stuff. That outfit and your name. Do you have anything to do with Thor?”

Another time that Tony had no idea what Rayne was doing, but he had felt a helpless passenger for a long time now.

“Yes… we were raised by the same people.”

The casual, flat answer was enough for Rayne to tilt his head up to finally look at Loki. “He is your brother?”

Loki replied again in that monotone voice. “Thor is no kin of mine. Not in blood. Nor in my heart.”

“That’s your adopted family.” Rayne really made it sound as if he only now realised this.

“Thor is no kin of mine.”

Nodding Rayne didn’t dwell on that. “You aren’t human.”

“No.”

Reaching up Rayne brushed his fingers over Loki’s shaven jawline, then touched the tips of his long black hair. “Is this what you really look like?”

Loki’s hand in Rayne’s strands stilled and he hesitated. That moment passed and his voice was just as firm as before. “Yes, this is how I see myself.”

Before the next question, which was definitely coming, Rayne grabbed Loki’s hand. “Were you… were you the reason for the invasion?”

“No, I was not the reason, but I was part of it. The one who sent this army wanted something that was located on earth and I played the mercenary.”

“Because this planet meant nothing to me. It’s small, insignificant, powerless and yet arrogant and highly aggressive. Also I got promised that the planet would be mine to do with whatever I pleased.”

“That’s… are you serious?”

“Yes.” The answer was very simple and Rayne swallowed. “Do you still feel that way? About this planet?”

“Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. I merely disguised who I am. I didn’t lie about how I feel about things.”

“So what about me?” Rayne’s voice was faltering and looking at Loki with wary eyes.

“You are… something that I want to figure out. Pick apart and put back together and… marvel at it. For being beautiful, intriguing and so smart.” Loki trailed off and Tony could hear that regret which made clear that Loki didn’t believe anything of that was going to happen now.

Staring at the screen with his mouth slightly open Tony couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The realisation had set in several minutes before and Tony still had trouble accepting it for what it was. They had him. Little correction, Rayne completely had him.

Except that there was no guarantee that Loki wasn’t going to turn his back on him any second. For destroying the lovely façade that he had put up.

“Then do that.”

In utter confusion Loki stared at Rayne, slightly shaking his head. “What?”

The dynamic shifted once more, Rayne turned around, straddling one of Loki’s legs, his hands framing Loki’s face. “Do that. Take me apart. Put me back together. I want that. I thought I had you figured out, but how when there’s so much that I don’t know. I want to know… everything that’s you… and why you are so scared of me knowing…”

Rayne didn’t want an answer or Loki to think too long about what he had just said. So he kissed him. With a passionate that nobody should have within them after being strangled by the very same person they were kissing.

For a moment it was just Rayne. Loki seemed frozen, with his eyes wide open. Shock which eventually vanished and Loki gave into the kiss. The kind of kiss an outsider should not watch. More intense than anything they’d witnessed before. Fingers digging into fabric and skin. Lips gliding over each other, teeth biting into them.

When they broke apart Loki let his head lean against Rayne’s. “I am sorry for… putting my hands around your neck. That’s not who I do things. I guess… it runs in the family…”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing…” Loki dismissively shook his head. “I picked up somebody’s bad habits… and I can’t… I am not going to be like that. Not with you. I am sorry…” As he was talking Loki rubbed his thumb over the pendant. “I meant that…”

“I know… and I want it. All of you.” Rayne hinted at the smallest smile and leaned in for another kiss. This one didn’t seem to end and when it did the next one followed so quickly, so easily that there was no point in trying to make them out. Loki let himself be pushed flat on his back, while Rayne continued to kiss him. At this point there was no doubt that conversation was over. Wasn’t that the only thing missing to close the circle? An evening that started with caresses, then brought about a fight, violence, reconciliation, kisses and now sex?

Tony thought that at least like this he could stop fearing for Rayne’s life. Which didn’t mean that they could relax. Not when Rayne went from having the life chocked out of him to pulling Loki’s clothes off. Loki who had seemingly ceded all control to Rayne. By now Tony didn’t believe anymore that Loki might still snap, but that didn’t mean all danger was gone.

They ended up as two entwined bodies between the knocked over chairs and discarded clothes. Tony and Clint did each other the courtesy of pretending that neither of them was here. Their presence turned out to be unnecessary though since the sounds that were transported over the microphones had nothing to do with pain. Quite the opposite.

After tonight Tony was going to get severely drunk and bash Rayne’s head in personally.

For now he could only watch Rayne curling into Loki’s side, his fingertips ghosting over Loki’s cheek. “I like you like this.”

As Loki looked up at him the soft, comfortable expression on his face couldn’t have anything to do with the ugly side they had seen minutes ago. “What do you mean?”

“The black hair… I like it more than the curls. I’ve complained about the beard before, haven’t I?” To prove his point Rayne kissed him and then grinned. “That’s definitely better.”

“Why aren’t you… How can you not feel freaked out about this?”

Loki was asking a completely valid question and Rayne reacted with a shrug. Was that really the best idea?

“Honestly… I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong, my heart is racing and all of this… I haven’t wrapped my head about it yet, but… I’ve always felt that there was more to you. More than you’d let me see. Now I’ve seen it and I can’t pretend that I understand it, but I want to. All of it. You’ll have to show me.”

Swallowing deeply Tony waited for Loki’s reaction. The god took his time, studying Rayne’s face. Was that him trying to figure out if he was being lied to?

“I guess I’ll have to do that.”

 ***

“Tell him to get his ass in here!”

Fury was living up to his name. Since the second he had heard that Rayne was back at the headquarters the director hadn’t been able to talk at a normal volume. Understandable.

Six Avengers were in their chairs, more or less agitated while Fury was pacing around the conference room. It only got worse when after five minutes Rayne still wasn’t here.

Curses were uttered and another couple of minutes passed until the door was finally being opened. The version of Rayne which slipped inside the room didn’t resemble a clean-cut agent who was ready and eager to give his report.

To Tony he didn’t look very put together. His hair was a mess, he had a half empty bottle of beer in his hand and to nobody’s surprise he seemed nervous, jumpy even.

“Agent Rayne, you were supposed to be here 10 minutes ago!”

The growl failed to impress Rayne. “I am sorry, director, but I need a drink first…”

Only now Fury seemed to notice the bottle in Rayne’s hand and completely lost it. “Are you insane?! First you go purposely against your orders, foolishly risk your own life and the entire mission and now you show up late and drunk!”

Clearing his throat Steve tried to draw some attention to himself to release the situation of some tension. “Perhaps you could cut him some slack… He was assaulted and had to play it down. Let’s give him some time to…”

“I didn’t ask for your opinion, Captain Rogers. Agent Rayne got attacked because he went against my orders. Because he got arrogant. You’re lucky to even be alive. Now put that bottle away and sit down!”

With a scowl on his face Rayne did as he was told and Tony was sure any other time he would have protested. But now? Now he was completely fucked up, fidgeting.

“If I could I would instantly remove you from this operation and have you do office work of a couple of months. Unfortunately I can’t do that, so pull yourself together. Now hand over the necklace, it’s going straight our analysists.”

Rayne winced, his hand going up to the necklace and grabbing the pendant. Judging by his eyes he had forgotten that he was still wearing it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

“Fortunately you proved today that you are not able to judge what is a bad idea and what not. This is a magical artefact and it needs to be examined. Take it off. Now.”

Again, Rayne didn’t put up a fight and instead obeyed. As soon as it was gone Rayne slowly rubbed his hand over his neck and Tony asked himself if he could still feel Loki’s touch or the absence of the necklace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Question time
> 
> 1) Is this really a good idea to take a look at the necklace?  
> 2) Where do they go from here?


	10. I just might be all you want

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> How are they going to continue this relationship after a bit of the truth came out?

If Rayne was any good at being an agent and Natasha knew that he was, he had to be aware of her watching him. Natasha wasn’t even being subtle about it and that wasn’t the point. Watching Rayne doing his paperwork didn’t seem very exciting at first glance, but for somebody with an eye for details it turned out to be immensely satisfying.

Rayne was wearing a scarf. Granted, he knew how to include it into his outfit to not make that little piece of garment stand out. Grey with black stripes. Looking nice actually. The question was why would he bother to wear it here? Every agent who was aware of the mission knew what had happened yesterday. It was general knowledge what Rayne was hiding beneath the scarf.

It couldn’t be about avoiding curious glances, because he was attracting them anyway. That came with the job. Not actually surprising.

This whole thing had to end with Loki in one of SHIELD’s cells or Rayne could get used to the paperwork, because it would be all he would be doing for the rest of his career. That little stunt yesterday had made sure that Rayne had a spot reserved for him on Fury’s shitlist. Once you were on that list, it was almost impossible to get off it. People only had to ask Tony about that. Not that the billionaire cared. That was one of the advantages on being and an Avenger and not actually working for SHIELD, you had some leeway when it came down to pissing off the authorities.

Rayne didn’t have that luxury. Being a normal agent, though a highly decorated one, he needed the approval of his director to pretty much do anything and at the moment Fury was very tempted to condemn Rayne to a seat behind a computer screen for the rest of his life. Pretty much the worst fate imaginable for an undercover agent. If Rayne was anything like her, he needed to be out in the field, needed the thrill and excitement of the game. Well, Rayne perhaps didn’t need it as much as Natasha, because every fibre of Rayne’s being was so obviously leaking with ambition. Not even trying to hide it.

Maybe Rayne could live every well with an office job. If that office happened to be the one of the man in charge. So if Rayne ever wanted to get there, he needed that mission to go down smoothly. With Loki in chains or dead and no casualties whatsoever. The whole matter could be resolved so easily if Rayne had permission to simply slip some arsenic into Loki’s food. Unfortunately that would only ensure Thor’s everlasting rage and hatred towards them. Loki was already bad enough, they could afford to rile up all of Asgard against them.

It looked bad for Rayne if they went through the options. There was still a possibility that Loki would still look through the scheme and that would result in Rayne’s murder. Or the mission would go down as planned with Loki in custody, but with several dead agents on the way. Not good enough – office job. The only scenario that would save Rayne’s dreams of becoming the man in charge was Loki locked away without even one shot being fired. That would impress the people even above Fury enough to ensure Rayne’s rise to the top.

Rayne knew that and he had known that before he had gone against direct orders. A calculated gamble. Natasha didn’t respect a lot of things, but courage was one of them. Was courage even the right word? Guts? Anyway, Rayne had lots of it and nobody needed this mission to succeed more than him.

To be honest, Natasha was more than curious to find out what Rayne had planned. He had already gone against Fury’s wishes, so why stop now if there was so much on the line. Natasha was eager to see things unfold.

Casually walking over to the Rayne Natasha settled down next to the fellow agent. Rayne didn’t give her the courtesy of looking up. “Done with watching me?”

“For now. What’s up with the scarf?”

Rayne’s pen stopped scraping over the paper for a second and Natasha knew she had hit a spot. But she wasn’t naïve to believe that Rayne wasn’t letting her see it. The reaction was real and undisguised. She had no doubt that he would have been able to hide it if he had wanted to. “I’ve had a Skype call with my sister earlier. That would have been difficult explain.”

“So why are you still wearing it now?”

Raising his head Rayne met her eyes. He felt challenged, feeling that she was looking for some kind of weakness. For now Natasha just wanted to see his reaction. How he was dealing with the physical attack, because despite Rayne being cocky and capable, he wasn’t used to violence or actual combat.

Slowly, with deliberate movements Rayne took off the scarf, revealing the abused skin underneath. Wounds or scars had stopped fazing Natasha a long time ago, but she could nevertheless admit that the sight was extraordinary. In the most ugly way.

Blue and purple marks that stood out harshly, a hard contrast to the white skin. Impossible to hide without covering his entire neck. Going out like that on the street would probably result in people calling the police. Those marks couldn’t be mistaken for anything else than what they were.

“He wasn’t holding back, that much is obvious.”

Rayne snorted in annoyance. “Nice to point that out. I hadn’t noticed at the time.”

“Since you pretty much provoked this reaction, what are you going to do so it doesn’t happen again?”

Rayne raised an eyebrow at her. “I have already taken care of that. May you excuse me now? You’re interrupting my preparation.”

“Maybe I can help you out, Christian.”

The sigh that Rayne let out was the most frustrated sound that Natasha had ever heard from somebody else than Steve. “Since when are we on first name basis, Romanoff? No, you can’t help me and you know very well that undercover work is something you have to do completely alone. I guess I’ll talk to Thor.”

Without further explanation Rayne grabbed his notes and got up to leave. Natasha wouldn’t pretend to be surprised by his coldness. They were in the same line of work, more or less direct rivals and to be frank – Rayne had always been a loner. Very full of himself, maybe too much. Actually that might just be the reason why he should be able to pull this off.

 ***

Steve and Thor were in the middle of their work-out routine when the door to the gym was being opened. Seeming Rayne coming in brought up different emotions. Firstly surprise, then shock and disgust. Over the last couple of hours the bruises on his neck had started to form and they were ugly. A definite proof that Loki hadn’t been holding back. Rayne was so luckily for even being here.

“Agent Rayne, something we can help you with?” Steve wiped the sweat of his brow and Rayne nodded with his typical blank and yet focused expression. “Yes, I’d like to talk to Thor.”

The Asgardian nodded. “Sure. I assume it is about Loki?”

“Yes.” Rayne immediately got straight to business. “Have you ever strangled Loki?”

Steve’s eyes grew wide and he blurted out a loud “What?”

“Loki made some allusions and I need to know these things to gain back some of the trust I lost. The easiest way to get to Loki is through your family issues. So would you please tell me if you ever strangled your brother?”

“I’ve never done to Loki what he did to you.” Thor was quick to say that and Steve wouldn’t have expected anything different.

Rayne gestured at his own bruises in the most casual way. “Alright, but I’m not necessarily talking about trying to kill him. Have you put your hands around your brother’s neck? That’s all I want to know.”

Thor shifted slightly, but then nodded once more. “The day our mother died and I broke him out of the dungeons… we got into a fight and I put my hand around his neck, but I didn’t strangle him. I just did it… to keep him in place.”

Rayne didn’t comment, but asked further questions. “What was the fight about?”

“I’d rather not…”

“I have to see your brother again. Today. I am not foolish enough to believe that he trusts me completely, so I need to push a few buttons. Give me something to work with. What did you fight about?”

Steve wasn’t going to say anything, because Rayne needed all the information he could get to keep himself safe. That didn’t mean that Thor wasn’t uncomfortable with the topic. “About the death of our mother… he accused me of being unable to save her and for locking him away… that way he also wasn’t able to do anything. And about… who she had more affection for.”

“Huh…” Rayne clicked his tongue. “Thank you. That was very informative.”

Turning around on his heels Rayne left and Steve bit his bottom lip. He was having a hard time not staring at the bruises. “Do you think your brother could have killed him? After all he seems to be quite attached to him.”

Thor’s expression turned completely grim. “Loki has known him for two months and shares his bed. He has turned on his own family without a second thought.”

 ***

“Hello.”

“Hey, this is Sebastian…”

“I know. I read your name on the display.”

“Right… Loki, I’d like to meet up. We need to talk.”

“I agree. Do you want me to come over?”

“No, uhm… I’d like to have dinner. There is this nice Italian that I’ve…”

“I get it. You don’t want to be alone with me.”

“That’s not… Okay, yes, I’d like to talk in a public place. Is that okay?”

“Absolutely. Are you going to text me the address?”

“Yes, yeah. Sure. Is 7 o’clock alright with you?”

“It is.”

“Loki?”

“Yes?”

“You are going to come as yourself, right? The real you.”

“Would you prefer that?”

“I would.”

“Alright. I will see you tonight.”

 ***

Things had never been more tensed before an observation and it didn’t get better when Loki didn’t arrive on time. Rayne was sitting at his table, nervously sipping on his water and Steve couldn’t tell if he was pretending or if he really felt that way. A grey scarf was wrapped around his neck and Steve tried to remind himself over and over to remain his calm. At the moment he wanted nothing more than grab Loki and throw him in a tiny, dark cell. Maybe hit him a few times before that. Steve didn’t condone violence, but he wanted Loki to try and do that to someone who could actually fight back.

Taking a deep breath Steve waited like everybody else.

After another five minutes Loki finally walked into the restaurant. True to his word. No beard, long dark hair that almost reached his shoulders. He was even wearing a green coat. For some reason that immediately made Steve’s blood boil.

There was no smile on his face, but he didn’t exactly look keen on murder either. Rayne greeted him with an uncharacteristically shy smile. As soon as Loki had reached the table Rayne got up though to kiss him. That definitely wasn’t what Loki had expected. A pleasant surprise though.

“I wasn’t sure I would hear from you again.”

“That was never an option… I just… there is a lot of things we need to talk about and… you will have to cut me some slack, because… I think I am literally the first person who is in this kind of situation…” Rayne tried another smile, but even to Steve it looked forced. So it had to be intentional.

Loki sat down, crossed his legs and made an inviting gesture. “Whatever you may want to ask – go ahead.”

Seemingly taken aback Rayne struggled for words. “Okay… I am… Shit… I can do this. I’ve never paid much attention to the Avengers and until last night I didn’t know shit about Thor, but now I googled him to find information on you and there wasn’t anything. Not a single word. Nobody called Loki is linked to… to the invasion.”

In response Loki snorted. “That would make the shining god of thunder look pretty bad if everybody knew about his forsaken little brother…”

“Okay, but to get to the point… and what really kept me up all night… you came here as a conqueror…” Rayne’s voice was shaking as he pressed out that single word. “… but what was your plan? What did you want to do? How much of what happened was you, because… that day a lot of people… including me thought that the world was going to end.”

Just be looking at Loki’s face it was impossible to guess what was going on in his crazy brain. Which was strange, because usually Loki’s face was very expressive. “Are you scared?”

“Yes and I believe I have every reason to. I don’t know what you can do. What you are capable of, but... this already happened.” Rayne gestured at his neck and Loki had the decency to look away for a second. Was he ashamed? Steve for sure hoped so and yet that would somehow make things worse.

“I was a mercenary, but I had no actual interest in this planet.”

Steve huffed in slight outrage. Was Loki really trying to talk himself out of leading the invasion of earth? That wasn’t going to work.

“Before coming here… I had been lost. Literally. I wanted to use the gateway that had brought in the aliens as a way to get back to Asgard. Earth should only be a stopover. The Avengers ruined that plan, but I was brought back to Asgard anyway. In chains.”

These were all things that Rayne already knew, but he took them in like hearing them for the first time and being overwhelmed by them. “Okay… but how did you come back?”

“I escaped. Technically my brother let me out of my cage to help him and then I ran. He never caught up.”

Rayne nodded once more and then mumbled softly “Why come back to earth if you never wanted to be here in the first place?”

That was a very good question. Thor had repeated over and over that Loki had the power to go pretty much everywhere he wanted to, except for Asgard. Why would he stick around on earth?

“Because there are a few things on this planet that I need and I stayed here to gather them.”

Hearing this Steve thought of the museum artefacts that Loki had stolen. Rayne needed to dwell on this.

“And where do I fit into all of this?” Rayne was whispering, putting vulnerability into these words that Steve hadn’t thought him capable of.

“You…” Loki stopped mid-sentence, seemingly out of his depth. “The same way before you found out.”

Loki’s eyebrows went up slightly when Rayne reacted with a strange sound which seemed upset and full of disbelief. Rayne didn’t say anything though, he added nothing to his spontaneous reaction. So it was up to Loki to ask what that meant. “Something you want to say?”

Releasing a long breath Rayne leaned forward in his chair. “That’s not going to happen, because after I found out – you did this.” Rayne softly tugged at the scarf to reveal a little bit of abused, purple skin. “That’s a big difference… I am still here, I don’t want to go anywhere, but… I need an explanation. I could understand if I betrayed you or tried to hurt you, but I didn’t do anything like that.”

“I could tell you that I didn’t mean to hurt you, but that would be a lie, because in that moment I did want to hurt you. What I can say is that I am sorry for feeling that way. For doing what I did.” Loki was speaking in this very soft tone and it disgusted Steve. How could he even try to apologize when he was saying in the very same sentence that he had wanted to cause Rayne physical pain?

“Was there a chance of you ending up killing me?” Rayne fearlessly met Loki’s eyes and Steve held his breath.

“No.” Loki said simply and Rayne tilted his head, looking at him questionably. “Why? You’ve killed other people. You must have. During the invasion.”

“Because… even though I was furious I still knew that…I still wanted it all to be a coincidence. I wanted you to… I wanted us to remain as we were.” Nothing about Loki gave the impression that he felt shy about it, he seemed honest. Was that even possible?

“I fear that ship has sailed… That doesn’t mean we can’t be something else. If you are willing to share your past with me. I’ll tell you everything you want to know in return. Please. I am absolutely sure that I deserve that much.”

Adamant. Steve felt another hint of admiration. It couldn’t be easy to stand up to somebody who had already proven that he completely outmatched you in every way possible.

This demand was met with silence. Loki had even stopped looking at him. His eyes travelled across the room, but they were clearly unfocused. Was he thinking? Why did it take him so much time? Perhaps Rayne should just get up and leave. By now Steve preferred any normal fight over this mission.

“Alright…” Loki eventually said and nodded. “This is not the right place to discuss these things though. I would prefer something more private.”

There was slight hesitation before Rayne nodded. “I don’t feel like eating anyway… My car is outside. Let’s go to my place.”

So they both got up from their chairs and walked outside. All of that happened in complete silence. Loki only spoke up again when the car had already started moving. “I told you the truth about my adoption. I didn’t know about it until… two years ago. That’s the truth, it’s just a bit more complicated than that.”

“I’m listening.”

At that moment Loki started talking. The camera in the car told them that he wasn’t looking at Rayne. It was the story they already knew, but another perspective indeed made it sound quite different. The adoption turned into Thor’s father stealing a baby in the immediate aftermath of a battle. The baby belonging to another race that the Asgardians had been at war with for centuries. A race they considered monsters.

“I didn’t know and I still wouldn’t know if I hadn’t found out by accident. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t found out and the very next second I hate myself for even thinking that. Because not knowing about somebody’s misdeeds doesn’t make them disappear. My father said that he had never told me, because he hadn’t wanted me to feel different. Good job there. All my life I didn’t feel anything but different. Which wasn’t always bad. I could do things that Thor could only ever dream of and I’ve always loved the things I can do. I can’t count how many times I saved Thor’s life by using my brain or magic… Did I get a thank you? No. Was I appreciated for that? No… Did our father treat us differently? Yes, he did. When we were children there was talk about one of us would be king… That talk stopped over the years. It sounded a lot more like ‘When Thor is going to be king’. So much about not making me feel different. Not the good kind, where you can look down at other people… More like… Why am I being overlooked? What have I done wrong and why can’t I see it?”

Yes, Steve had heard it before, but not from Loki’s point of view. It has always been Thor and if Loki had acknowledged anything about their history he would do it by screaming that Thor wasn’t his brother. Steve could feel a slight tug inside of his chest. A hint of pity.

“And nobody sees it or even speaks about it. Everybody gets ready to celebrate Thor’s coronation. The new shining king of Asgard. And it becomes so blatantly clear that it could have never been me, because nobody even mentions it. Nobody considers it. So I ruin his big day. Because just once he shouldn’t get immediately what he wants… The plan backfires. I find out what I am. It suddenly all makes sense. How could I ever be good enough if I am not their son? I am not even the same race as them and that was all they ever saw. Otherwise how could they have missed that Thor wasn’t fit to be king… He was the only option they had… but of course father never wanted me to feel different.”

By now Rayne had stopped the car in the drive-way in front of the safe-house. Unbuckling his seat belt Rayne shifted in his seat, so he could better look at Loki. “Did he apologize?”

“Who?”

“Your father. Did he apologize for what he made you go through? Finding out the way you did? Letting you grow up… despising yourself.”

Loki shook his head, his features showing open confusion. Almost as if that idea had never occurred to him. “No, he didn’t. He told me I was twisting his words when I confronted him about it.”

“That’s… I don’t even know what to say. They kept your own identity from you and didn’t even care to…” Rayne shook his head, paused to take a breath. One of his hands was still on the steering wheel, his grip so tight that his knuckles were turning white. “I am so sorry that happened to you.”

Gone was the blank expression. Loki’s eyes lingered on Rayne’s face, wide and incredulous. Maybe even more than that. To Steve it seemed like he was seeing a different version of Loki each day and this one didn’t make any sense.

Almost looking small, curling up in his seat. Staring at Rayne and being completely lost while doing so.

As it became clear that Loki wasn’t going to say anything Rayne continued. “Your bro-… Thor, what did he say to all of this? To you being… not really part of their family.”

“That conversation lasted 10 seconds. We fought together and played together. Did I forget all of that?”

Now Rayne was mirroring Loki’s disbelief. “That’s all? Is that supposed to mean that because it doesn’t matter to him, it also shouldn’t matter to you? That’s… unfair. He’s completely ignoring the issue, which is huge and… Was that really everything?”

Loki slowly shook his head and snorted weakly. “When I told him that I had felt trapped in his shadow… he called that imagined slights… Since then we’ve never talked about it again. Not once.”

Letting the words sink in Rayne rubbed one hand over his face and muttered the words “Good lord” under his breath. Three seconds later Rayne reached over, sliding his fingers through Loki’s hair before softly pressing his mouth on Loki’s. “I am sorry….”

The words were still floating in the air as Rayne kissed him again which provoked a strange reaction. Loki buried his fingers in Rayne’s jacket to pull him closer and at the same time he turned his head to avoid the kiss. “I don’t want your pity.”

“I do not pity you. It’s just time that somebody tells you that what happened wasn’t okay. I don’t know what I would have done in your place. It wasn’t fair.”

Loki didn’t reject the next kiss. Instead he leaned into it, trying to pull Rayne closer in this tiny space. A kiss that wasn’t unlike the ones last night. Gentle and yet so needy. The kind of kiss that everybody would want. Or at least Steve thought so.

Holding his breath he noticed that Loki raised his one of his hands and grabbed Rayne’s scarf. Just the scarf. Loki pulled it down completely, revealing the marks and the necklace Rayne wore around his neck. His fingertips were brushing the dark, abused skin. “I am sorry. I shouldn’t have…”

Rayne smothered the words with a new kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Question time:
> 
> Where is this relationship going?  
> \- Loki is going to take horrible revenge  
> \- Plan works and Loki ends up in a cell  
> \- Rayne calls it off  
> \- It's getting a bit too real
> 
> What would you prefer? ;)


	11. I just might be under your spell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> Wow, thank you so much for so many comments :) That really makes me happy. 
> 
> To be honest I wasn't sure if anybody would even read this story, since an OC is such a prominent character. So it feels really good to see you guys invested in it and enjoying it. Thank you :D

“So…” Stretching out lazily like a cat Rayne used Loki’s shoulder as a pillow and trailed his fingers over Loki’s chest. “… about the magic. As you’ve called it. Besides almost trashing my living room, what can you do?”

A small, clearly content smile was playing around Loki’s lips as he was once again playing with some loose strands of Rayne’s hair. “A lot of things… too many to name probably…”

Instead of continuing with the patterns Rayne gave him a little, playful slap on the chest. “Don’t do that. It might not a big deal for you, but it is for me. My boyfriend can move objects without touching them. I want to know and I want to see. I know that you want to show me. You’re a show-off. So go ahead, show off.”

“It’s not showing off. It’s like breathing. Not that much of an effort.” Loki let go of Rayne’s hair and held out his hand. The green glow started quite small in the middle of his palm before spreading across his skin, engulfing his lean, long fingers.

Rayne’s lips formed a soundless ‘Wow’ as he stared at Loki’s hand in awe. Loki curled his fingers half-way and the green light began to pulsate. Bringing his fingers together Loki gathered the light at the tips before creating little strings of green when he moved his fingers again. Now there was a delicate net in his hand, seemingly so fragile that a spider could have made it.

“That’s… I want to say awesome, but that would sound so plain… It’s beautiful. Can I?” Rayne held out his own hand Loki nodded. “Sure.”

He wasn’t trembling, but Rayne wasn’t trying to hide his excitement. Instead of just touching the strings Rayne put his whole hand into Loki’s which didn’t cause the light to disappear. “It’s warm… but besides that I can’t feel much…”

“Because I am controlling it. I could let go if I wanted to it would burn a hole through the wall. It’s energy, it can be almost anything I want it to be and at the moment… I just want it to be a pretty light.”

“You are a show-off.”

“Perhaps…”

“It’s amazing…” Rayne kept watching their entwined hands until the glow had completely vanished. “What else?”

The eagerness couldn’t be fake and if it was, somebody had to nominate Rayne for some acting award.

Chuckling Loki shrugged. “A lot of things. I’ll show you, not now though. I want to savour this…doing nothing.”

Rayne couldn’t let it go. Naturally, he was here to obtain information. Tongues were loose after sex and Loki appeared to be so utterly content for once. How could he not?

That realisation had Tony take a sip from his beer which had Natasha screwing her face up. “Really? We’re on a job.”

Tony had nothing but a tired grunt for her. “Sorry I am not used to that kind of stuff. If I have to watch two attractive guys having sex and only feel uncomfortable during the entire thing, I feel entitled to have a drink. Don’t worry, I am not getting drunk, but this is kinda hard to stomach.”

Natasha didn’t reply and Tony hoped that this meant that she had resigned herself to her fate of watching him drink this beer. It didn’t actually do much to help Tony, but he wasn’t going to admit that.

“Do you want something to drink? I’m going to get us a bottle of water.” Rayne had that wicked, pleased smile on his lips as he kissed Loki once more and then slipped out of bed. To Tony’s relief Rayne quickly put on his shorts instead of running around the apartment naked. They kept their focus on Loki anyway. Pretty unexciting. Loki didn’t move, he remained lying on his back, one arm behind his head. Yeah, that asshole was having a good time.

When Rayne returned he handed Loki the bottle who took a long sip from it. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome… Wait a second, was that even necessary or would that have been one of the things that you could have done with magic?”

Laughing softly Loki shrugged. “You are way too interested in my abilities.”

“Come on, wouldn’t you be interested in something that you’ve always thought impossible and then you find out that your boyfriend can do impossible things? I’ve told you that I want to know everything.” Rayne continued to smile, now somewhat teasingly and poked softly Loki’s chest.

The god shook his head with mild amusement. “I can’t just make things appear, but I can do this.” Loki made a small gesture with his hand and the bottle vanished in green light out of his hands. Rayne’s mouth dropped slightly open and the wonder on his face couldn’t be denied as soon as the bottle reappeared.

“Okay, that was… pretty impressive.”

Grinning widely Loki shrugged and took another sip from the bottle while Rayne was making himself comfortable next to him. “What did you just do? Exactly? Did you really magic it away or did you turn it invisible?”

“I guess it would be too complicated to explain it in detail. Let’s say I put it in another place and brought it back. I could turn it invisible too if I wanted. Were those enough questions?”

Answering with a nod Rayne carefully took the bottle and put it away on the nightstand. “Enough about the magic for now. Do you really work as an archivist?”

Loki let out an exasperated sigh, but it was clearly noticeable that he didn’t care. “I did for a while. It was very entertaining, a nice way to pass time.”

“I wonder if I’ll ever be able to wrap my head around this.”

“Probably. In time. You will sometime stop to ask me things though if you want to catch some sleep tonight.”

“Who is saying that I want to sleep? All I want to do is listen to you or watch you do stuff, because all of this is mind-bendingly amazing. Because I can’t believe what you can do and I just know that I’m never going to be this awe-struck by anything else in my life. It’s weird to know something like that.”

The excitement had Loki smile mildly but with unmistakable affection. “What if I don’t want to show off the entire night?”

“I somehow doubt that, but okay… What other suggestions do you have?”

“Lie down and come here.”

Tony didn’t know the appropriate reaction to Loki wanting to sleep and to cuddle. So he took another big gulp from his bottle. In the meantime Rayne had complied and Loki had put one arm around him, his lips brushing over Rayne’s shoulder. Then Loki just closed his eyes and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like ‘good night’.

“Well, I guess we’re in for a couple of hours of rest. Well-deserved after all this drama. I guess we can all agree on the fact that Loki’s and Thor’s family is really fucked up.” Leaning back Tony shifted around, trying to get the tension out of his body which was always in vain. Nobody of them would be feeling at ease until Rayne was back at the headquarters.

Next to him Natasha hummed in approval. “At least it’s clear now that he is right about Thor, he doesn’t know how Loki’s mind works. This was not exactly the reaction that he expected.”

“What? Loki pretty much offering himself on a silver plate to Rayne, telling and showing him pretty much everything that he wanted to hear? His decision to tell Loki was still immensely dangerous, but clearly the most efficient way to go. Otherwise he would have never achieved this kind of closeness. Like now there should be no reason for Loki to not show Rayne his place in the near future.”

“You are trained to do that. To read somebody, slip into their mind. Would you have been able to do that with Loki?” Tony tried not to think about the fact that Natasha had been doing undercover work with him. It was easier to ignore all the possibilities where that little fucked up adventure could have been going. Right now it wasn’t about him though.

To his surprise Natasha took a moment to think and it didn’t seem like pause just for show. She was actually trying to figure this out. “Like this? Probably not. What Rayne is doing here isn’t the average undercover work and the speed at which he is doing it is also extraordinary. He is amazing at reading people and for some reason it’s especially easy for him to figure out Loki. You already know that his record is impressive, the precision of what he is doing here is astonishing. I’ve done similar jobs, but usually they take a lot more time.”

Tony nodded softly. “Okay… Rayne was right about something the entire time – Loki really wants somebody to listen to him and let’s be honest, their family history is insane. The way Thor’s father treated them, it’s no surprise Loki turned out fucked-up.”

“Are you going to excuse mass murder with a bad childhood?”

“I think it’s a bit more than a bad childhood, but no, even then I am not trying to find excuses. He’s completely responsible for what he’s been doing. The point where somebody could feel sympathy for him has been passed a long time ago. Maybe I just feel a bit surprised that Loki is so willing to believe that Rayne understands his points and agrees with them.”

“Easy.” Natasha said drily. “Loki thinks he is in the right and now somebody finally came along who agrees with him. People don’t question it if someone shares their opinion, even if up to this point nobody would ever listen to him. It’s always easy to believe somebody when they are agreeing with you. No matter how deranged your ideas are.”

Tony thought that she had a point there.

 ***

It took about five hours until somebody moved on the bed. Rayne slowly and carefully untangled himself from Loki and eventually got up. Loki himself rolled over and seemed to continue to sleep, though uneasily. On the tip of his toes Rayne made his way into the bathroom and took a close look at his neck in the semi-darkness. The bruises were only one day old, they hadn’t changed much, nothing had faded yet.

That was another thing that just didn’t make any sense to Tony. How could Loki believe that Rayne was capable of overlooking this assault so easily? Attempted murder yesterday and love tomorrow? No way.

Tony hadn’t even finished this thought when Loki also left the bed. In silence Natasha and Tony watched as Loki followed Rayne into the bathroom and wrapped his arms around the other man’s waist from behind. Rayne’s hand was on his own neck until Loki grabbed it and softly pulled it away. They were looking at each other in the mirror Tony watched with growing unease as Loki lifted his other hand and put his fingers on the bruises. He did it slowly, tentatively, asking for permission. Rayne didn’t flinch, nor move at all. His eyes kept watching Loki carefully.

The light was soft and faint as it appeared. A shine of green that engulfed Rayne’s neck and when it vanished it left behind white, unmarked skin.

With no attempt to hide his shock Rayne stared at Loki, his eyes wide with disbelief. “What did you just…”

Loki responded by pressing a small kiss on Rayne’s jaw. “It’s not real. An illusion. I can make it go away if you want to. I thought it would make everyday affairs easier for you. That’s about all I can do, if I could do more, I would…”

Hesitantly Rayne touched his own neck and Tony wondered if it felt any different to wear one of Loki’s illusions. “This is… I can’t see anything.”

“That’s the point.”

“This is incredible.” Rayne’s whisper was faint before he turned around and smashed their mouths together. Loki’s surprise and Rayne’s over eagerness made it a messy kiss. At first at least. With passing seconds it became gentler, it almost seemed sweet. Rayne framed Loki’s face, whispering against his lips. “You are the most fascinating thing I have ever encountered in my life…”

“I’m tempted to say the same.”

 ***

Two days. Loki wouldn’t leave for two entire days. Which shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, because they were a couple and Loki had made his affection very clear. Steve wasn’t part of the observation the whole time. Whenever he was, he got to be a witness of long conversations, excitement about little displays of magic and whispered confessions of otherworldly events.

“A snake? Really? By now I am pretty sure that you’re merely making things up.” Rayne chuckled, his face was illuminated by a big smile, even his voice sounded bubbly and honestly amused. The picture they made would have been quite endearing if Steve hadn’t known about the circumstances and backstory. The agent was lying on the couch, his feet in Loki’s lap while the god was running his hand up and down his calf. “No, I swear. He has always had that weird fascination with snakes while I find them heinous. He was so easily fooled. Still is.”

Steve had to work on himself, these little remarks hit him way too personally.

Rayne was the personification of a person having fun, his eyes were gleaming. Hanging on every word that Loki said. He was doing this now for two days straight, there had to be a breaking point somewhere along the lines, right?

“Come on, you are not really serious, right? A snake? I can buy that you can alter your appearance, but changing into an animal? No, that’s… Can you… No, actually I don’t want you to show me. That would be too weird. Answer me a question though?”

“Sure.”

“Could you turn into pretty much anything?”

Loki tilted his head, showing a content smile. “There are limits to everything. I can turn into beings, objects… as long as they’re not significantly bigger than me. A horse is alright. A house? No, that wouldn’t work out. Being another person, there pretty much aren’t any limits.”

That was another point on the list. During the last two days they had learned more about Loki’s powers than during all the times they’ve fought him. For Steve these were the first moments that this entire mission actually payed off.

Sitting up Rayne skidded closer, his legs still draped over Loki’s lap. “Are you for real? You can look like everybody?”

“Yes.”

“Not just altering your features a little bit? Like the beard or your hair colour?”

Shaking his head Loki smiled. “Do you want to see?”

A bit unsure but still excited Rayne replied with a clear ‘Yes’. By now Steve had almost got used to the green light that played off Loki’s magic. Right in front of Rayne Loki’s body changed completely. Shoulders getting a little bit broader, his hair shorter, the cheekbones less prominent, the form of his eyes changed, they got bigger, turned blue and within seconds Rayne was facing his identic twin. That was a sight nobody could stomach easily and Rayne nevertheless did a good job at not losing his composure. For a second it looked like he was going to pull back, but then he merely whispered a hoarse “Wow”.

Instead of saying anything Loki continued to smile, letting Rayne watching him. Himself. Steve was getting a headache.

“This… I should really stop ending up speechless when you’re doing that kind of stuff, but this is…” Raising his hand Rayne stopped mid-motion. “Can I… touch you like this?”

“Go ahead.”

Carefully Rayne brushed his fingertips over Loki’s cheek before quickly pulling back. “This is too weird… The most amazing thing that ever happened, but I really don’t want to look at myself.”

Laughing lightly Loki dropped the illusion and turned back into himself. “Believe me now?”

Without saying a word Rayne nodded, still amazed.

Leaning over Loki pressed a slow kiss onto Rayne’s lips and the agent responded to it before turning away.

“What is it?”

“I am….” The excitement and the bright eyes had waned a bit. Suddenly Rayne looked like he had something on his mind. “No, you are… beyond everything I can comprehend. The things you can do are… I don’t really have the words to describe them. Perfect? Overwhelming and simply amazing. I mean you could go anywhere and do anything. Why would you stay here? With me?”

Loki frowned softly. “What do you mean?”

With a helpless gesture Rayne tried to start his explanation. “I… I know I am smart and I like to think that I am good company. I guess I am good looking enough, but what can that even mean to someone like you? When you have the world at your fingertips? Considering everything you told, the things you have seen, places you’ve visited and… How do I even compare to that?”

“You don’t and you don’t have to. What I can do has nothing to do with you. Nothing at all. I’ve met people who have the same powers, similar powers and yet they’re all plain, boring and completely the same. You are none of that. You are striking. So hungry for everything. Information, power, knowledge, emotion… It’s all right here.” Loki drew a line with his index finger beneath Rayne’s left eye.

“I’ve said it before. There is so much going on there. When you are looking at me, looking at anything I know that you are trying to see everything. Not just the surface, the façade, every little feature. When there is something you don’t understand or that you don’t know, you aren’t scared, you want to learn more. You want to understand. That’s so much more interesting and intriguing than most people could ever hope to be.”

While offering Rayne a smile so sweet that a murderer like Loki shouldn’t be capable of Loki kissed Rayne ever so softly. With his lips still touching Rayne Loki muttered “Also yes, you definitely look good enough.”

Rayne’s spontaneous laugh was perfectly clear, bright and so relieved. Loosely he wrapped his arms around Loki’s shoulders before bringing their mouths back together in a new kiss.

Another five hours later Loki finally left and this time it was him who had marks on his neck. They had nothing to do with violence though and Steve was feeling nauseous.

 ***

“Good to see you, agent Rayne. Your report can wait, you have to immediately show up at the infirmary.”

Fury’s request caused Rayne to raise both eyebrows in mild confusion. “May I ask why, sir? There wasn’t a physical incident.”

Clint could see that how Tony was almost chocking while trying to hold back the words that wanted to come out. Right, physical incident. After two days filled with so much sex that did indeed sound a little weird.

“At this very moment you are under the influence of magic. It needs to be checked out.” Fury’s explanation sounded a bit dismissive while Thor spoke up. “My brother cast a simple illusion. He has done so thousands of times. Wearing illusions himself, putting them on someone else. I wore them. They aren’t harmful.”

The glance that Fury shot him couldn’t be more indifferent. “I hope you won’t be upset that I will not take your word as gospel. We’re not just worried about Rayne’s health. There has never been a better opportunity to analyse Loki’s magic. Therefore the doctors and a couple of our scientists have to check Rayne out.”

“With all due respect, sir… I believe that would be a waste of time.”

“Well, it’s good that I didn’t ask you then, Rayne. Off you go. I’ll have your report when you’re back from the medical team.” With his eyes narrowed to slits Fury made it perfectly clear that he wasn’t going to tolerate any further delay.

With an obvious grudge Rayne turned on his heels, leaving the conference room, but the very tensed atmosphere remained. Clint hoped that nobody would say anything, so they could end this meeting with dignity, but there was still Tony.

“Are you actively trying to piss him off or are you just fucking petty, because his plan worked out perfectly and he’s been right all along?” Tony simply always had to act like a kid that enjoyed adding fuel to the flame. Maybe even eager to burn his own face off. Just because he could.

Fury’s dark stare was instantly fixed on Tony. “I beg your pardon?”

“Just saying… the guy spent two entire days with Loki, half of it in bed and Loki has been telling him everything. Fucking everything! He’s showing him every trick in his book, because Rayne knew how to play this, against what you wanted him to do. Now he doesn’t even get a ‘good job’? Hell, I would be pissed if I had to whore myself out completely and all I get is ‘Go to the infirmary and shut the fuck up’.” Crossing his arms in front of his chest Tony looked at Fury challengingly and in these moments it became blatantly clear that he would have never worked as a member of SHIELD. Fury and him would have killed each other ages ago.

“I am not complimenting agent Rayne for being irresponsible but lucky. I will admit that his influence over Loki is exceptional, but we still haven’t learned anything of use for us.”

“What the hell do you expect him to do? Ask something like ‘Yeah, all your childhood drama is really terrible, but what I am really interested in are ways how to disable your magic and to beat you in a fight.’”

“Don’t make a joke out of this, Stark. We still don’t know his hide-out or his routine. Rayne had two days to go after that information which he didn’t.”

“Honestly – judging by his track record I am far more inclined to put my money on Rayne’s approach than on yours. But what the hell do I know? I am just watching a guy twisting Loki, a maniac god, around his little finger…”

 ***

Naturally the results of Rayne’s check-up came up without any results and Clint was naïve to believe that everyone might get a break for a day. Well, except for Rayne who was now constantly hanging out at the safe house if Loki should decide to show up spontaneously.

Which he did the very next day.

Rayne jumped up from his couch when Loki was suddenly standing the middle of the living room, dressed his armour and bleeding. “What the… Loki?”

Hissing quietly Loki sat down on the armrest of the couch, covering his shoulder with his hand. There was blood seeping through his fingers. “Sorry for showing up unannounced.”

“What? Why are you hurt? What happened?”

“I’m not really hurt. It feels very unpleasant right now, but it’ll heal quickly as soon as I get out the bullet.” Loki grimaced slightly as he grabbed the edge of a rip in his sleeve and tore it open even further. By doing this he revealed some of the skin which was covered in blood and Rayne was at his side instantly. “What happened? Who shot you? Are you… do you need a doctor?”

Shaking his head Loki put his hand back on his shoulder. “No, I just need a moment…”

Green light engulfed Loki’s hand and he let out a pained sound. It wasn’t clear what was happening, except that he was in pain. Rayne grabbed Loki’s other hand, holding it tight as Loki let out a grunt and the green magic disappeared. All that was left were the blood stained remains of a bullet in Loki’s palm. “So there’s that…”

Rayne’s eyes darted from the bullet to the wound on Loki’s shoulder. “That’s… We’ll need to stitch you up.”

“Not necessary. It will heal on his own. Give it half a day.” Despite his voice sounding normal now, Loki’s face gave away that he was still in pain.

“Let me at least clean you up… that wound could get infected.”

Loki opened his mouth and it obvious that he thought Rayne’s suggestion unnecessary. Nevertheless he ended up nodding. “Alight…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today I made a little poll
> 
> [Should Loki and Rayne end up together?](https://www.poll-maker.com/poll1932694xE79C4166-53)
> 
> I am not asking what is likely to happen or what would make sense, but what you would like to happen. That doesn't mean I am going to write it, I just want to know the popular opinion ;)


	12. I just might know your weakness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> Wow, that poll was quite clear :D  
> 87% for our fake couple, fascinating ;)  
> Now let me now what you think of the continuation ;)
> 
> Have fun

Steve was seconds away from having flashbacks of the war. Of the aftermath. Treating wounds, stitching people back up. It wasn’t quite the same. The origin of the wounds wasn’t the same, there was nothing heroic about it. Quite the opposite, it was deeply upsetting.

Loki had slipped his arm out of his sleeve and was now absently staring into pace as Rayne was cleaning the blood of his shoulder. He did it with care, even warned Loki that it was going to sting since he had disinfected the wound beforehand.

“What did you do? Where did you get shot at?”

That was the right question. They needed to know. It wasn’t like half of SHIELD wasn’t trying right now to find out what Loki had done. Who he had killed? Because there was no way Loki would let anyone live who put a bullet into his shoulder. That was just impossible.

“I took something that I wanted and somebody thought that I shouldn’t have it.” Loki stated drily, grimacing softly as Rayne trailed his fingers over the wound.

“In other words – you stole something.”

“Exactly.” Loki gave his confirmation and Rayne huffed. “I hope it was something precious if it is worth getting shot at, showing up here and scaring the hell out of me.”

“Yes, something precious, but that’s all. That scratch is not even worth mentioning.”

Steve felt his blood starting to boil because of Loki’s dismissiveness. There was no doubt that somebody had died and Loki treated the whole incident like it was nothing. Therefore Loki’s hiss of pain was so much sweeter. “What are you doing?!”

Rayne had just made himself very popular by digging his fingers into the skin around Loki’s wound. “That scratch does hurt after all, doesn’t it? I’m going to patch this up. Whether you want it or not.”

Loki grumbled which could be considered an agreement.

So Rayne got his getting his first aid-up and a little too professionally bandaged Loki’s shoulder. Steve was so totally lost when it came down to undercover work, but even he could tell that this had to be suspicious. Steve hadn’t finished his thought when Loki was already speaking up. “Why are you so good at this?”

“Lots of practice. After High School I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and for a while I considered becoming a paramedic. I even went through basic training…”

Loki slightly turned his head to look at Rayne. “Why did you stop?”

Rayne shrugged, his eyes focused on the work he was doing, fixing the bandages. “I realised that it wasn’t for me.”

Clearly intrigued and maybe a bit suspicious Loki kept asking, still looking at Rayne who still wasn’t going to meet his eyes. “Why not?”

With the finishing touch Rayne muttered an answer that Steve almost didn’t catch. There was no embarrassment, but a strange softness that made clear these words hadn’t been said before. “I didn’t enjoy helping people.”

Loki didn’t ask any further, he simply nodded and Steve sighed in relief. One bullet dodged.

“Enough stalling now. What did you do?” Rayne pulled back, their roles had switched. Now he was the one boring his eyes into the other one. Casually Loki twisted his empty and it was suddenly holding a big, beautiful sapphire. That was definitely something different than a piece of parchment. At least it would be now easy to find out where he had got this one from. Rayne had enough reason to gasp. “What the hell…”

“Pretty, isn’t it?”

“I’m hoping so badly right now that you didn’t steal me a sapphire…”

“No, I didn’t. Would you want one?”

“What? That’s not… Where did you steal it from? A museum? What do you need a sapphire for? One that huge…”

“It’s coincidence that it looks pretty.” Loki contemplated the gem in his hand, then gave it to Rayne. “It’s capable of storing energy. That’s what they should be used for. Not wearing them on your finger or around your neck.”

Rayne turned the sapphire around, staring at it with awe. “You use this as storage? You steal a sapphire of the size of an apple, because you want to use it as storage? I know nothing about gems, but this looks to me like… I’m holding a couple of millions in my hands.”

Rather uninterested Loki shrugged. “I am not familiar with how Midgardians determine the worth of a gem, but it’s definitely not enough… Then again, you are not able to use it as I am.”

“What are you going to do with it?” Carefully Rayne gave the sapphire back and Loki made it disappear. “It’s insurance.”

“Insurance for what? Come on, usually you don’t talk like that either. Serving me on piece at the time. It has to be something important when you go after something that’s clearly dangerous to obtain.”

In response Loki voiced a soft laugh, one that would have almost made him likable. “Do you believe that this was the first time I did something like this? It was merely the very rare occasion that somebody got their hands on me.”

Rayne took a breath and paused before speaking up again, way too softly. “Loki, I… just want to know what you are doing. What are you… trying to achieve? You said you are still here, because you need a couple of things. You are collecting them, okay. What are you going to do when you have all of them? Leave?”

“I am not trying to achieve anything. It’s insurance.”

“What does that mean? For what? I know that I won’t be able to understand everything, but I am trying to make some sense out of this. I am… You are not human. Quite a lot to take, but I’ll deal with it. You tried to conquer this planet, the planet I am living on. You’re a murderer.”

Where was he going with this? Going through the list of all the things that made Loki a horrible person? All these things which should prove why Rayne would never really interested in Loki. That he could never be actually invested in somebody so cold-blooded.

Cold whenever he needed and wanted to be. Like right now. His eyes were focused on Rayne’s face, his expression completely calm. “Yes, I did all that. Yes, I am all that. Where is your point?”

“My point is that…” Rayne hesitated. “I find out that I am excited about all these things… which is insane and I guess that I don’t really care about that. What I do care about is you showing up, bleeding after you’ve been shot at. I wanna know why and I wanna know if that’s something I should get used to.”

Loki nodded slowly and moved around, trying to slip his arm back into his sleeve, but Rayne quickly interfered. “Stop. No moving the shoulder. Take off the… leather. I’ll get you a blanket.”

As Rayne moved to stand up, Loki shook his head. “Not necessary.”

There was the now familiar green light and Loki’s leather outfit disappeared, being replaced by a soft green tunic. The casual display of magic was seriously putting Steve off. Rayne was handling himself quite well, but even he seemed uncomfortable. “Or… you just do that.”

“No, you don’t have to get used to any of this. Or whatever you think this is. I’ll admit the wound looks nasty at the moment, but it will be healed in three more hours. It’s nothing. No reason to worry about anything. I took what I wanted, what I always do. There is hardly anything on this planet that could hurt me and it’s even more unlikely for me to get hurt since nobody on this planet has these things at their disposal. Or maybe they do and they don’t care. I guess there are easier ways to show you.”

Without further explanation Loki stood up and left the room. He was gone only for a couple of seconds and came back with a kitchen knife in his hand. Steve swallowed softly but to his relief Loki instantly held the knife out to Rayne who took it with a lot of reservation. “Loki, where are you going with this?”

There was once more green light that surrounded Loki and the tunic vanished. Now he was standing in front of the couch, wearing nothing but his leather pants and the bandages around his shoulders. “Stab me.”

Steve was sure that he hadn’t heard right and Rayne gaped at him. “What? No!”

“Sebastian, trust me on this one. Try and stab me with the knife.”

“No, I am not going to stab you! Are you mad?”

“Most probably.” Loki took another step forward and grabbed Rayne’s wrist. Pulling his arm forward until the tip of the knife was pressed against his abdomen. “Let’s do it in a less radical way. Try to cut me.”

“Don’t you get it? I don’t want to hurt you, I am not going to hurt you!”

A tired sigh was audible and then Loki’s fingers curled around Rayne’s elbow. It didn’t seem forceful though and his voice was unusually gentle. “You are not going to hurt me. This is the whole point. Try. Just a scratch. As gently as you want. I need you to do this, so you will understand.”

Biting his lip Rayne eventually nodded and Steven could see him moving his hand. Nothing happened. Confused and definitely a bit scared Rayne pulled back and Loki let him. “What… Your skin is like stone… which it isn’t because I touched it and… how?”

“The metal of the knife is too weak. It could only pierce my skin if you used a lot more force. I don’t think you would be able to stab me if you used all your power. At least with this knife.” Slowly Loki explained the situation while Rayne was putting the knife on the table.

“So the bullet went through your skin because… the gun provides more force?”

“Exactly.”

Shaking his head Rayne ran one hand through his hair. “That’s not exactly reassuring. It’s still possible to hurt you…”

“I was born. I will die. I can get hurt.”

“So stop going around getting shot at!” The calm and the discomfort disappeared within a second and were replaced by anger. Rayne was gesturing with his hands, his teeth clenched.

“Would I make you feel better if I told you that four different guns were fired at me?”

“No, it doesn’t! Only one bullet hit you, amazing! So what if next time two hit you? Or three? Would that be enough? What if you’re tired or nobody is there to help you?”

“Okay, Sebastian, will you please sit down? I appreciate the outrage, but… it’s also kind of entertaining.” Loki had the nerve to smile as he made himself comfortable on the couch and Rayne actually growled at him. “Don’t treat me like a fool!”

Keeping his calm Loki grabbed Rayne’s hand and pulled him down next to him. “I am not trying to make a fool out of you. I am trying to make you understand. You saw part of what I can do and I am not hesitant to use my powers and I don’t play fair. When somebody is after me, I get away. It’s what I do. Perhaps my biggest talent. I never go anywhere without knowing how I get out of this situation and even then I have a back-up plan. I am mad, yes, but I know how to take care of myself. Everything I’m doing right now is insurance.”

“What do you mean by that? Sometimes… a lot of times I can’t make sense of what you’re saying. What does it mean you have insurance?”

“It means that you don’t have to worry, alright? You saw a couple of my tricks, didn’t you? It’s all good.” Still smiling Loki reached out to pet Rayne’s hair and the agent let him. “And what about me? What about this?”

Rayne tugged on his necklace and Loki nodded, brushing his thumb over the pendant. “Do I believe you are in danger? No. Do I want to keep you safe nonetheless? Yes. I can keep both of us safe.”

Steve felt the overwhelming urge to punch his fist through the screen.

 ***

Their meeting took place five hours later. Rayne sat down at the table like he usually did and before Fury could criticize him for not finding out what Loki meant by ‘insurance’ Rayne asked his own question. “Did you find out where he got the sapphire from?”

Clint was quick to provide an answer. “African warlord. Loki stole it right out of his palace and killed at least 10 guards. We’re not sure about the numbers yet, they’re not very forthcoming with information.”

“Guess one of them did their job.” Rayne mumbled pensively and Fury jumped at his chance to get a word in. “Gotta applaud the poor bastards that got their throats slit. They were a lot closer to do some damage than you today.”

Tilting his head Rayne raised his eyebrow in the most patronizing way. “What? Should I have stabbed him? Which wouldn’t have worked anyway?”

“I don’t like your tone, Rayne. To answer your question – no. That’s not what you should have done. What you should have done was deepen the conversation when he was talking about ways to protect him or what he would use the gem for.”

Tony thought he could see how Fury was trying to spit these words right into Rayne’s face. Wow, as soon as they had Loki behind bars, Rayne was definitely going to fire Fury.

“I tried, but I felt that he didn’t want to talk to me about it, so I wasn’t going to push it. I’ll come back to it. It’s not like we didn’t learn anything to do. I would recommend to from now on use vibranium bullets in a confrontation with Loki.”

There was mumbled agreement from all sides. “That was already been taken care of. Doesn’t help us with the Sapphire though.”

“I might be able to provide some information on this.”

Everybody’s head turned with the speed of light and Thor instantly had all eyes on him.

“Say that again, big guy?”

“My knowledge on magic is quite limited, but I have spent my entire life on Asgard. I know a couple of things and Loki has pretty much said everything that we need to be aware of.”

Tony made an inviting gesture. “So spit it out.”

Thor did just that and during his explanation everybody’s faces began to brighten up. Hell, Tony was even tempted to smile. “Loki said that he could use the sapphire to store energy. Using magic is strenuous like physical activity. Loki is incredibly skilled and powerful, so he can use lots of magic for a long period of time, but eventually he will get tired. Using a sapphire as storage for his magic could be a very effect way to keep up a fight for even longer… or he could create effortlessly even more powerful attacks.”

Granted, that wasn’t the part which made them smile. Those were the bad news, the good news came afterwards.

“That means he could use the sapphire to do a lot of damage, but it also offers us a chance. Loki needs to fill the sapphire with his own magic, his energy. If it’s supposed to be of any use to him, he will have to put a lot of his energy into it. Afterwards he will be drained, weak and vulnerable. That might be our best chance to strike.” Thor sounded very dry while planning an attack on his brother, but Tony thought that he could by his eyes that he was saddened by how things were working out. Tony wasn’t envying him. Having someone in your family who completely went off the rails and was without hope. Fortunately family didn’t matter anymore at this time.

Fury obviously felt like Thor had just given him his birthday and Christmas present at once, but since it was Fury he still had to bitch about something, right? “And why are you only telling us this huge information now? Loki could already be doing all of this.”

Shaking his head Thor tried to indicate them to relax with a gesture of his hand. “I wanted to wait until everybody was here and I doubt that Loki is already using the sapphire. He and agent Rayne are going to meet tonight. He would not be able to do that if he had already transferred his energy. He would be in a state of fatigue that would be impossible to hide.”

That sounded like a goldmine. Dream come true. The perfect opportunity and they wouldn’t let it pass, that much was for sure.

“Alright, let’s assume I would be present while he was in this state.” Rayne leaned back, putting on his imaginable thinking hat. “I still wouldn’t be able to overpower him or to stab him.”

Thor negated. “No, but the Avengers could. Loki wouldn’t be defenceless, but definitely weakened. It depends on how much energy he would put into the sapphire.”

“I see. Anything I can do to worsen that state? Loki alluded to things that could hurt him. Is there a chance that I might be able to sedate him? Knock him out, so there won’t even be a fight?”

Rayne’s suggestion made things sound even better. Well, partly. Tony would definitely enjoy beating Loki’s ass, but if things went down with no risks for everybody involved, that would just be marvellous.

While Tony was already imagining the end of their eternal fight, Thor was a bit more cautious. “I am not familiar with Midgardian poisons, but I seriously doubt that any of them could incapacitate Loki if he has full access to his magic. It just might work if he drained himself enough…”

Fury showed his dark grin which gave Tony the creeps. “Still a lot of ‘if’ in this scenario. Too many for my taste, but I’ll admit it is the first useful idea anybody’s had. I’ll have a couple of people work on toxins. Our time window is very limited. We have no idea when Loki is planning to use his storage unit. Rayne, we need you around when this happens. Also make sure he uses up as much energy as possible. Can you do that?”

Not done challenging Rayne yet.

The agent didn’t give away how he was feeling about that. Instead he gave his superior a little nod. “I am confident that I can get him to do pretty much everything I want.”

Well, somebody definitely hadn’t eaten his humble pie.

 ***

It had started to snow when Rayne and Loki met up in front of the restaurant they wanted to have dinner at. Tony was shoving crisps into his mouth while Rayne grabbed both of Loki’s hands and completed their greeting with a thorough, yet gentle kiss.

“Would you roll your eyes if I told you that I missed you?” Rayne was smiling, clearly trying to tease him and Loki seemed in a good mood, the shot wound clearly forgotten. “I definitely would and you would like it.”

“Probably.” Rayne laughed and it sounded so happy and pleased that Tony was aching to know how he would be like in a real relationship. Had they ever seen a real emotion from him?

As it turned out Loki was more interested in kissing Rayne than continuing this conversation. They ended up standing there, in front of the restaurant, for more than one minute, completely engrossed in each other.

Just as Tony was starting to get annoyed Loki pulled back, only slightly. His lips were still touching Rayne’s cheek. “Do you mind if I change plans for tonight?”

Bad sign. Red flag.

“No, not at all.” Rayne nuzzled his nose against Loki’s cheek.

“You want to come to my place?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is that plan going to work?  
> What's going to happen at Loki's place? :D


	13. I just might be your downfall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> Please no Infinity War Spoilers in the comments, okay? ;)
> 
> Rayne is going to Loki's place...
> 
> Have fun

Pulling back Rayne smiled at Loki with bright eyes. “Wait a second. Did you just invite me over? After what? Eight weeks? It’s about time. You’re going to cook for me?”

“Not quite… but you’ll like it. Ready to go?”

“Sure, I’ll call a taxi.” Rayne was reaching for a phone and Loki shook his head. “I know a faster way.”

Raising on eyebrow Rayne frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I took take your hand and we’d be there within a single second. Spares so much time.” Loki seemed amused by his own suggestion and Rayne was doing his usual job of acting confused. “You… are not talking about just showing up in a place… like you did yesterday?”

Loki merely smiled and Rayne shook his head, gaping. “That’s… you can’t be serious. Is that even possible and should we even do that? I am not… whatever you are. Do you understand what I am trying to say?”

“Yes and I say – don’t worry about it. Until now you’ve liked everything that I can do. Didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did, but…”

“You’ve touched it before. It’s not very different. All you need is a little trust in me .I thought you would be excited.”

Tony snorted when Loki was actually trying to guilt-trip Rayne into teleporting around with him. If he had been in the agent’s shoes, Tony would have run away as fast as he could. Unfortunately that was an impossible thing to do now. Loki would either get upset or suspicious.

“Oh, I am excited, but also freaked out. That would really work out? Without my organs exploding or something like that?” Rayne managed to croak out a hoarse laugh.

“Nothing like that. I’d like to show you. What do you think?” Loki held out his hand and now it was time for Rayne to take a stand. Sadly there weren’t many options and they all knew it. Should he refuse – Loki would be seriously upset or offended. Something they couldn’t afford.

Taking a deep breath Rayne eventually nodded. “Alright, but I can hold on to you?”

Almost a bit astounded Loki nodded. “Sure. Go ahead.”

Instead of taking Loki’s hand Rayne slid his arms around the god’s neck. “That’s going to work?”

“Perfectly.” Loki put one arm around Rayne’s hips and then Tony and every other agent witnessed how they disappeared. No fancy green light, no majestic glow. Nothing. On second on the street, the next one gone. So Loki clearly didn’t care who saw him and who didn’t.

New information – Loki could teleport with another person if he wanted to and he had taken Rayne to wherever. The screen of Rayne’s video transmission had gone black, no audio. Tony wasn’t so sure if they were ever going to hear from him again.

There was no denying that Tony felt an immense weight being lifted off his shoulder as the black image on the screen flickered for a second. Colours reappeared and now Rayne’s camera was the only camera they could rely on. Which meant that they could only see what Rayne was seeing at a rather awkward angle.

“That was it?”

“Yes. Not that much of a big deal, right?” Loki was clearly amused. It was easy to tell even without seeing his face.

“No, I wouldn’t quite say that, but okay… Wow. Your place.” The camera was moving which meant Rayne was moving, turning on the spot to check out all of his surroundings at once. As Tony’s heartrate slowly went back to normal he got see books. This room rather looked like a library than anything else. Shelfs that covered the entire wall, completely filled with books in all different sizes.

“You like to read, don’t you?” The joke was pretty bad and Rayne even laughed awkwardly.

“You already knew that. This is my library.”

Now that made so much more sense, but Tony couldn’t be bothered at the moment. Turning away from the screen he addressed one of the several agents in the room with him. “Any ideas yet? Please tell me you have a tracker on him. What about the camera signal?”

“We’re working on it, Mr. Stark.”

Which meant they had nothing and they weren’t going to get anything. Tony rolled his eyes. That’s what you got when you tried to rely on SHIELD’s resources. The next time Tony would be the one who take care of these details. As unimportant as they may seem.

“Do you mind if I…?”

“No, I brought you here. Do as you please.”

Tony instantly spun his chair back around when he heard that. Did they just get a free pass to snoop around? Damn it, Rayne had to be good in back. Naturally Tony knew that there was more to it, but it felt less revolting when Tony tried to distract from the truth with jokes. Even in his head.

Rayne approached the shelves and Tony tried to make out the titles of some of the books. A pretty useless undertaking.

“What are those? I can’t recognize the script.”

“It’s not from this planet.”

“Oh…alright. Is there anything that was written on earth?”

“A couple. I enjoy your poetry.”

Tony heard Rayne love and all of this was so strange without seeing either of them. At least Rayne did them the favour to turn around and gave them a visual on Loki. Relaxed, smiling lightly, standing there with his arms crossed. Well, he had to be comfortable with the situation. Why else would he bring Rayne here?

“You’ll have to read me one of the otherworldly books, okay?”

Once more Tony was shocked at how expressive Loki’s face was. Such bright eyes and the corners of his mouth twitched in mild surprise. There was undeniable happiness to be found there. Tony was going to feel sick. “Would you like that?”

“Yes, of course. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance? Sometimes I don’t get why you don’t understand how incredibly amazing all of this is.”

“Oh, I understand. I guess I am just not used to it.”

A rather uncomfortable silence settled in for a few seconds before Rayne walked back over to Loki. Tony thought that he grabbed his hand, but it was hard to tell due to the camera angle. “Show me around?”

“With pleasure.”

Loki’s place was huge and that meant something coming from Tony. To his surprise though it was very old-fashioned. The Asgardian didn’t seem to enjoy modern design or bright colours. Lots of dark green and blue, big comfy chairs that you could spend hours reading in. Paintings on the wall. Expressionism, still-lives, no portraits. A desk covered in papers, drawings, designs. One or two magical artefacts on display, but Rayne’s eyes didn’t linger on them, the agent knew what really mattered.

The windows.

If they saw enough of the surround buildings they might be able to figure out where Loki’s apartment was located. So Rayne stopped in front of the amazingly big windows, taking in the sight of the city. Yes, definitely New York at night. Perfect.

“It’s beautiful. Your place is… something else entirely. That painting over there isn’t the original, right?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because the original was stolen from the Louvre last week? It was all over the news.”

Rayne glanced at Loki and now Tony could see his grin. “It’s going to be appreciated so much more here than in the museum.”

“You’re sure of that?”

“No, but I don’t care. I wanted it.”

There was laughter and Tony rolled his eyes. Hopefully they would get to another topic soon, because this was seriously getting on his nerves. Fortunately they were finally moving to the kitchen, because Rayne had been promised dinner after all. The agent got to sit down at the kitchen counter and watch Loki preparing the food. Tony’s stomach dropped at the sight of Loki expertly handling knifes. Looking far too at ease with it.

Eventually they both were sitting at the counter, eating steak with green beans, talking about nothing substantial. Mostly about Loki’s place or literature. During all that the agents were still trying to figure out where the apartment was located. If Loki were to turn on Rayne now, he would definitely die. Nobody could come to help him.

Tony wasn’t particularly worried though. Loki was smitten. Why would he hurt him now? They seemed perfectly comfortable there, drinking their wine. Actually Tony just realised that Rayne hadn’t said anything for the last couple of minutes. Not a word. Loki had done the talking. Something about a magical mist that he had created to grant him and Thor safe passage home.

Judging from the camera angle Tony assumed that Rayne had his head propped up on his hand, watching Loki. Eventually Loki noticed that Rayne wasn’t saying anything and stopped his own tale. Smiling softly Loki picked up his glass. “What is it? What are you looking at?”

“You. I like listening to you. I am contemplating you. You are beautiful.”

Tony wasn’t capable of hearing anything but sincerity and the effect was instant. Overwhelming and undisguised. There was sudden change of expression in his eyes. Gentleness that turned into amazement and Tony couldn’t believe that the smallest smile could be filled with such joy. Then it dawned on him that Rayne was right. At this moment, like this, Loki was beautiful.

When all this was over Tony would sit down and have an actual talk with Rayne. About how he instinctively knew how to do this. Push someone’s buttons so precisely. Tony had done his fair share of influencing people in his life, but nothing like this. Being able to play with someone like this simply had to change oneself. The question was how much.

Ever so slightly Loki was shaking his head, putting his glass back down without having drunk from it. “Were you trained to do that?”

A cold shiver was running down Tony’s spine. God, not now. Too much?

“What do you mean?”

“Saying these things. Not just saying them. The way you say them. With your voice and your eyes. To make them work this way. Not everybody can do that. I can and you’re almost as good as me and I’ve trained all my life.” Loki didn’t sound distrustful, rather intrigued. Nevertheless Tony’s heart was almost jumping out of his chest.

Rayne kept his cool, bless the man. “What about just saying things as they are? I was looking at you and I couldn’t help but… pointing out the obvious.”

Loki huffed in response, but it wasn’t an offended sound. Rather endearing. “Someday you might actually be as good as me at this.”

“Yes? I kind of believe that this is the biggest compliment that you could ever give anybody.”

“Absolutely.”

Still smiling Loki moved closer, so close that he was blocking the camera, but Tony could hear what was happening anyway. They were kissing and Tony was pretty confident that they weren’t going to stop anytime soon. Of course he turned out to be absolutely right once more. After a couple of minutes they were moving into Loki’s bedroom which was definitely putting Tony’s to shame. One single glimpse at the four-poster bed was enough. Nobody got to see much more since Rayne’s clothes quickly came off and since the camera was worked somewhere into the fabric there was no more visual.

The audio transmit was still enough to make anyone blush. So Tony rather turned to the agents, helping out to do the math on how to find the apartment. Rayne had provided them all the needed, they should narrow that down pretty quickly. It would be a lot easier to work though if somebody weren’t having so much fun.

“Oh my god, I think that’s it. Who am I kidding – of course that’s it. We have his address. I can’t fucking believe it. We know where the bastard lives!” It happened rarely that Tony was feeling so excited that he wanted to jump up and down. Or to hug the person standing next to him. Finally getting ahead of Loki was the perfect occasion to be overwhelming by glee. This was it. The murderous god was going down.

As the information was sent to all the Avengers and to Fury, who was probably going to wet himself with excitement, Rayne and Loki started talking again. The audio wasn’t the best, but Tony could still make them out.

“I like your place. It’s… you. I hope I am allowed around here more often.”

“That’s the point. I would like to have you around.”

Dear god, they were going to promote the shit out of this guy.

“So you wouldn’t mind if I brought my toothbrush the next time?”

“Not at all.”

 ***

Wow, did Tony feel stupid for trying so hard to figure out the location of Loki’s apartment through geographical analysis. They all felt pretty stupid. Loki walked Rayne out the door the next day. As it was the most normal thing on Earth.

Three hours later Rayne walked into the headquarters with a lightly swollen lower lip. Tony could see Steve’s face turning red as he spotted that. Loki must have bitten him. Most unimportant detail of the day, that much was for sure.

They were so close. Only one tiny little step forward and they had him. For the first time Tony actually dared to imagine what it would be like to have Loki off the streets. How much safer everybody’s life on this planet would become.

“Good job, Rayne. That was fantastic work today.” Although Fury was full of praise he still didn’t look at the agent, too wrapped up with the map of New York where they had marked Loki’s place with a small X. “Any weapons that you saw on display?”

“None, sir, but I made out three good spots where to place cameras. I will leave some of my clothes behind and other things that we can use to put up surveillance. The sapphire was put on display, just like the ancient French document. He wasn’t trying to hide it or lock it up. I guess he feels very secure in his apartment. I believe that he has magical defences in place, but I doubt that cameras would set anything off.” Rayne did a quick summary and Tony could see him fidgeting, shifting around. That man was clearly eager to say something else.

“Thor, do you agree?”

Their thunderer nodded, still looking as grim as he always had for the last couple of weeks. “Loki has always been very anxious about magical attacks, he is more likely to be prepared for them than for physical attacks.”

That could come in handy.

Fury nodded, finally lifting his head and he instantly noticed Rayne’s intense glare. How could he not? Subtlety was something else entirely. “Rayne? Something you would like to add?”

Leaning forward Rayne nodded, his usual calm suddenly settled back in. “Yes, sir. I have come up with a plan how to bring this thing home.”

Cocking his head to the side Fury raised an eyebrow to show his scepticism, but made a gesture that indicated Rayne to continue. The agent did. In that detached, professional tone that would drive Tony mad if he didn’t know that this guy meant business.

“If Thor’s assumptions about the sapphire are correct, then we have a perfect opportunity at our hands. He enjoys my interest in his abilities and his magic, I will ask about the sapphire again. If the process is really as dangerous and as draining I will insist on being with him when he does it. I will need a syringe or pills… Maybe both to adapt to the situation. As soon as he’s done with the sapphire I’ll either slip something into his water or inject him with the tranquilizer. Something strong enough to knock him out. I know there is no guarantee that we will come up with something that efficient, so I need the Avengers and a SHIELD team right in front of the door to come in and take him away. For the plan to work I need to set up the cameras and the tranquilizers… and perfect timing. I am confident that I can that, but I need to be able to rely on back-up being two seconds away.”

Nobody was saying a word as they were taking in his plan. The first concrete idea they had ever had to take in Loki. Non-violent. It was almost too good to be true.

“I guess I speak for everyone present that you can rely on us 100% if the director will approve this plan.” Steve gave his assertive nod, a gesture that clearly displayed respect.

“It’s simple, that’s why it’s good. We might have a good chance there.” Natasha also voiced her support and the rest of the Avengers agreed. Especially Clint. “Hey, I don’t care whatever plan you come up with. If we’re taking him on, I am game.”

Everybody’s eyes now focused on Fury who was only giving them his grim stare. “Although I am inclined to go with your plan, agent Rayne, I can’t give you any guarantees yet. By now this mission has attracted a lot of attention in the upper ranks. I can’t greenlight this plan without the permission of the World Security Council.”

Tony uttered a loud moan. “Really? Since when do you give a crap about these guys?”

“Since we don’t just have to capture Loki, but also to detain him and they can offer the resources we need for that. It’s not always as simple as you would like to have it, Stark. But considering the process we’ve made so far it’s not unlikely that they’ll let us do anything that we fucking want. I’m all for Rayne’s plan, so give me a moment and I’ll get us the permission.”

That turned out to be the shortest business call that Tony had ever witnessed. Fury had a dark, but immensely content grin on his lips when he delivered the council’s message.

“Get the fucking bastard.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good plan? Bad plan?  
> How is this going to work out? Let me know :D


	14. I just might lose myself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> Well, I like that chapter and I needed to change the warnings. Shit is getting even more real and we're racing towards the finishing line :)

“How are you feeling, Thor?” Steve felt like he should put his hand on Thor’s shoulder, touch him to show his support. For some reason though to do so would be awkward, Steve couldn’t quite explain it. His friend looked indeed pale, his face white as chalk, but since it was Thor, he was trying to play it down. “I am feeling great, Captain. Most wonderful.”

Natasha stepped closer, smiling knowingly. “That’s unfortunately not the point. If you’re feeling great, we’ll have to change the dose.”

Thor swallowed and then mumbled “I might feel a little bit dizzy.”

“Good anything else?”

Thor nodded. “Tired. I’d like to fall asleep, but I believe I could fight it for quite some time.”

Steve now patted his shoulder anyway. “That’s good. Means we’re on to something. The effects of the serum should be harder on Loki than on you.”

To his surprise Thor shook his head. “No way to know for sure. He is Jotun, his body is different. They are tough creatures, highly resistant.”

That didn’t sound like a problem for Natasha. “We can double the dose for him.”

“Romanoff, I don’t want my brother to get hurt.”

“And we don’t want Rayne to get killed. It has to be effective. I’d rather risk Loki’s life than Rayne’s.” Natasha’s answer was cold, but Steve agreed 100%. Even Thor knew that they were right, Steve could tell, but they weren’t so cruel to make him say it out loud. It was the third day that they were testing different toxins on Thor. Not meant to do damage, just to knock him out. Like Natasha had said – they weren’t going to risk Rayne’s life.

“Speaking of Rayne, Natasha we have to get going. They’re supposed to meet up in half an hour.”

Thor was going to sit this one out. It wasn’t like they were particularly worried about the dates anymore. You never knew with Loki, but he had obviously grown very attached to Rayne and without a hint or sign of betrayal, there was no reason for him to snap.

Today they were going to visit an art gallery and afterwards they were going to have dinner. That sounded like a date that Steve would also enjoy. If it were with somebody that he genuinely liked.

Sometimes Steve wondered if there was someone that Rayne was interested in. He couldn’t have an actual relationship since he spent so much time with Loki. Steve didn’t even dare to think about the implications if there really was somebody else. What would they say if they knew that Rayne was kissing somebody else every day? And doing even so much more than that. Shrugging off the thought Steve grabbed his things and got prepared for the observation. It was going to be a long day as always.

***

“This has to be a joke. Please tell me that this is a joke. I mean this is horrendous. Did a child create that? A mentally challenged child?”

Rayne was giggling, profoundly amused by Loki’s shock. “That’s kind of harsh, don’t you think?”

“Oh, come on! Look at it!” Loki wasn’t even trying to keep his voice down, attracting the attention of several visitors as he gestured at the painting at the wall. “Somebody spilled a can of paint. That’s all it is.”

As much as Steve despised Loki, he kind of agreed with him on that. Modern art really wasn’t his thing, but that didn’t mean he was going to be disrespectful about it. Observation tonight was fairly easy since SHIELD had hacked into the security system of the Guggenheim Museum. Like this they could watch them from every possible angle. At the moment Loki was pulling a face, walking up and down as he tried to get another look at the painting. It didn’t seem to work out though.

“That’s pathetic. You’ve clearly failed as a culture if you consider this art.”

“Sir…”

“Was he even holding the brush the right way? No, of course not, I forgot for a second that the so called artist merely splashed some paint on the wall.”

“Sir, I must ask you…”

“Did somebody lose a bet?”

“Sir!” The employee of the museum finally got a word in and looked wonderfully offended. “This is a Jackson Pollock!”

Loki blinked, looking at the employee, then at the painting and finally at Rayne. “I am incredibly sorry for my lack of knowledge, but is that name supposed to tell me something?”

Rayne was laughing softly, clearly having a good time. He answered with a shrug and the employee was glad to explain. “He is one of the most influential and greatest artists of the 20th century.”

“Oh.” Loki put on an expression of exaggerated awe. “I must admit that there is still something that I do not understand. If he is such a talented painter… why would he spill paint all over the linen?”

Next to them Rayne was obviously dying to not burst out with laughter and Steve rolled his eyes. He would prefer it if he ended that awkward scene.

“Sir, I am sorry, but you do not seem to know a lot about art.”

“I will tell you what I know. What’s the painting called? Enchanted Forest? Let me tell you, I’ve been to more than one enchanted forests and none of them looked like that.”

The employee’s mouth dropped open as she stared at Loki absolutely speechlessly. Before she had the chance to recover a still chuckling Rayne grabbed Loki’s arm and softly pulled him along. “Thank you for your help, but we still have a lot more paintings to… examine. Let’s go, Loki.”

A grinning Asgardian let himself be led away and Rayne slid his arm around Loki’s upper body. There was still laughter in Rayne’s voice. “That was just mean.”

“Did you look at the painting?”

“Yes… it is quite shitty.”

“So why am I not allowed to be a little spiteful?”

“Oh you are.” Rayne stopped to be better able to look at Loki, a mischievous grin on his lips. “I just said that you were being mean. Not that I don’t enjoyed it.” To make matters even clearer Rayne kissed him and Steve gave him props for that. Really making the best out of every situation. Loki placed his hand on Rayne’s hip, pulling him closer. With clear amusement Rayne mumbled against his lips “I don’t think it’s appropriate to make out in an art gallery.”

“Absolutely not.”

They grinned at each other before engaging in a new kiss and Steve would be incredibly thankful if they could keep that to a minimum. Rather unlikely. When they finally parted Loki was all grins. “I think I might come back here sometime and do all of Midgard a favour. That ugly insult to everybody’s eyes needs to go.”

Rayne shook his head, that joyful smile on his lips. “Let’s get out of here and get something to eat.”

Steve was feeling relieved when they indeed left the museum and headed for the restaurant where they had made reservations. To be honest, the dinner was rather uneventful. Loki and Rayne were having fun, still talking about the museum and other things. It was a good thing that Tony joined the observation, otherwise Steve would have felt a bit bored.

“Do you think that we should warn the museum? That he plans to vandalize the place?”

Tony waved him off, munching blueberries. “Nope. I own a Jackson Pollock. It will be worth so much more if Loki gets rid of the ones in the museum.”

“Sometimes you are a terrible person, Tony.”

They shared a smile before focusing again on their work. Nothing special, Rayne and Loki were having dessert. Still not anything special going on. Tonight they were talking about the most trivial things, not even one mention of magic. It could almost be considered normal.

“Are we going to your place afterwards? I feel like trying out that huge couch of yours.”

Steve almost jolted out of his chair when that came completely out of nowhere. Tony chuckled softly. “That’s a man who knows what other men want to hear.”

“I was kind of hoping that this would be one of the rare times that they don’t sleep with each other.”

“If I was with either of them, I wouldn’t even leave the bed.”

A little bit disgusted Steve pulled a face. “That’s not even funny, Tony.”

“Whatever. It’s all coming to an end pretty soon anyway.”

“Can’t be soon enough.”

During Tony’s and Steve’s little discussion Loki had agreed to Rayne’s suggestion and they stayed at the restaurant only a couple of minutes longer. Now was the rather difficult part of the job. Rayne and Loki had decided to go by foot and at this time of the night they couldn’t just have three agents walk after them without attracting attention. So they were mostly relying on Rayne’s camera. They were holding hands as they left the restaurant and Steve was shocked that he might after all get used to seeing them like this.

“You’re not really thinking about getting that painting right?”

“I am not thinking about getting it, but turning it into confetti. Seriously, that wasn’t a real museum? You are just playing a prank on me. Not even a culture as backwards as Midgard would consider that art…”

“You seem to enjoy some of it if you steal it from the Louvre.”

“Yes, because you can actually make out what it’s supposed to be and it’s beautiful. Also I wanted it. I take what I want.”

“I know and I like that…”

Hearing that Loki stopped walking and they got to see his wicked smile. “You do? That rather comes in handy…” He was obviously teasing and Rayne reacted by sliding his arms around Loki’s neck. “I have a feeling why.”

Pleased with the answer Loki was leaning in and Steve was already annoyed by the impending make-out session. It never came though. Loki stopped mid-motion, the smile dropped off his face and his eyes drifted to side. Steve and Tony both straightened up in their chairs.

“Something’s wrong?”

Not answering Loki took a step back, looking left and right. The expression on his face had completely changed. Attentive, waiting and slightly disturbed. “Loki?”

“Something’s coming.”

“What? What do you mean?”

Suddenly Loki grabbed Rayne’s wrist and ungently pulled him along into a dark back alley while green light washed over Loki’s body, replacing his casual clothes with his armour.

“Loki, what’s going on?”

“We’re getting company. I’ll turn you invisible, stay behind, don’t make a sound.”

“What? No! You…”

Rayne was pushed back, stumbled and landed on the ground as Loki turned around, facing the other way. There was no time to react though. Steve wasn’t sure if he was seeing right. Something like a rip in the air, growing dark red. It got bigger by the second and eventually four… people were stepping through it. They looked similar enough to humans, but their skin was grey, they were wearing clothes that reminded Steve of Thor’s usual outfit. The most outstanding thing were their spears though. Steve was able to tell by looking at this group that they weren’t opposed to violence.

“Hello there. You seem a bit lost. Can I help you?”

They immediately stepped forward, approaching Loki. “Return what you have stolen, thief.”

Loki was raising his hands and Steve couldn’t be sure, but he thought he could hear by his voice that he was smiling nervously. “There must be a misunderstanding. Let me introduce myself. My name is Loki of Asgard and…”

With a roar the first one launched at Loki, attacking with his spear. Loki moved gracefully out of the way and sparks were flying as the spear connected with the ground making an awful sound.

“Alright, I offered you a way out.”

Two long golden dagger materialised in Loki’s hands and the other three creatures closed in on him. Tony was half out of the door when Steve shouted at him. “What are you doing?”

“Getting in the air! I’m not getting involved, but I need to be close by if Rayne happens to get in between the crossfire.”

Yeah, that sounded reasonable.

 ***

By the time Tony landed on the roof of the building one of the aggressors was already down, the ground covered in dark red blood. Almost black.

Tony’s eyes were frantically searching for Rayne, but Loki had probably been true to his word and had turned him invisible. What Tony witnessed down on the street resembled a dance. Loki’s fighting style seemed completely different than when he was with the Avengers. No teleportation or clones,

just incredibly quick movements. Thor always seemed to rely on strength, his adopted brother was fast, fending off the spears with his arms and legs, making it look gracefully. Which didn’t mean that this fight wasn’t serious. Gritted teeth, moans, sliced pieces of garment.

Also there was no holding back, those were two parties clearly going for the kill.

One of the creatures rammed the stub end of the spear into Loki’s stomach which had him stumbling back and crashing to the ground. He stayed there for less than a second. Grabbing the spear from the dead creature Loki used it to get back up, then smashed it against the legs of one of the creatures. Despite the distance Tony thought that he could hear bones break. The creature went down and Loki threw one of his daggers. It would have pierced the creature’s chest if another one hadn’t parried it with his spear.

The dagger slithered across the ground and the fight continued. In all honesty Tony wasn’t able to tell how this would go down. It was three against one, but Loki was standing his ground. How much work it would save them if one of these spears found its target…

Tony’s prayers were instantly answered. One of the creatures slashed Loki’s thigh and as the Asgardian cried out in pain they overpowered him. Two of them shoved him against the wall of the building to the right, keeping him in a chokehold with one of the spears. Each one of them had their hands wrapped around one end of the spear, using it to cut off Loki’s windpipe. While the god was struggling to free himself the remaining creature stepped forward and raising its spear with the clear intention to impale Loki.

“No!”

The voice came out of nowhere, the main attacker turned his head for merely a second, but it was more than enough for Loki. Later on, when Tony had time thinking about the situation, he figured that Loki wouldn’t have needed the distraction. The daggers were back in his hands and it had been a severe mistake to not disabling him.

One dagger was rammed through the right creature’s lower jaw, making his way into its head. Loki pushed the other one into the neck of the creature to the right. The spear dropped and Loki caught it mid-air while delivering a hard kick against the remaining creature’s chest. With it on the ground Loki drove the spear through its shoulder, trapping it there.

Tony swallowed as he took in the scene. Loki’s armour was splattered with dark red blood, there were splashes on his cheek, his hands almost completely red and the ground didn’t look any better. Panting Loki let go of the spear and looked down at the creature which was coughing up blood. Unbothered Loki walked a couple of steps down the alley and then small gesture with his hand. Tony couldn’t deny that it made him uneasy to see Rayne appear in a shimmer of green light. The agent’s face was an expression of pure horror as he took in the sight of Loki.

“They were… Are you okay?” His voice was panicked and Loki nodded. “I am fine. I am fine. Pathetic wights…”

“They…” Whatever Rayne had wanted to say, the sound of his voice was already changing. How fast could fear be replaced by anger? Loki shook his head, lifting his hand to touch Rayne’s cheek, but he awkwardly stopped mid-motion when he only now seemed to notice that his hand was dripping with blood. Not his own though. Rayne followed his gaze with his eyes and one second passed without any of them moving. Eventually Rayne took a step forward, taking a hold of Loki’s hand which was still hoovering mid-air.

Tony wasn’t sure what he was seeing right now, but his guts were definitely twisting. The way Rayne kissed him was either on the edge of desperation or driven by overwhelming passion. Tony wasn’t able to tell, it was fucked-up either way. All inhibitions gone Loki brought up his other hand to cup Rayne’s cheek as they kissed. It didn’t last long though. After pulling away Rayne rested his forehead against Loki’s, entwining their fingers. They were an atrocious sight. Two beautiful men standing there, blood smeared across their faces, surrounded by corpses.

A nauseating sickness threatened to overcome Tony.

“What about…” Rayne nodded towards the creature one the ground whose hands were closing around the spear, trying to pull it out.

“Still alive. Surprisingly tough.” Loki said dismissively. “He’ll bleed out. I’ll let him drown in it.”

Fucking bastard

Rayne’s eyes darted from the dying creature back to Loki, his face hardening. “Should you risk that? They wanted to kill you…”

Loki tilted his head back, intrigued. “What do you suggest?”

After swallowing softly Rayne’s features turned to stone. “Kill him. Like the others.”

Tony’s blood turned cold as he heard these words. What the hell? Had he lost his mind? “Cap, did you hear that?”

“Yes.”

“What are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know.”

While Tony and Steve still had no idea how to handle the cards they had been dealt Loki passively looked at Rayne. His expression unreadable. Suddenly he turned around without saying a word and stalked towards the one left alive. Bending down Loki slashed its throat with one smooth gesture, provoking a horrifying death rattle that had Tony shuddering.

This couldn’t be happening.

Straightening back up Loki held out one hand and all of the bodies were engulfed in green light. As it vanished the corpses left behind looked human, but their wounds remained the same. Slaughtered. Smart son of a bitch. Covering up his tracks.

When Loki walked back to Rayne the tone of his voice was a sharp contrast to the entire situation. Softness within gruesome horror. “Let’s go.”

Once more they entwined their bloody fingers and then vanished into green light. Tony released a breath that he didn’t know he had been holding.

 ***

It wasn’t like Tony could have had Jarvis hooking him up to Rayne’s camera and microphone. That would have been a piece of cake. Tony actually was fucking glad that he had 10 minutes for himself. Or more than that. Because of pure selfishness Tony even waited for the cops to arrive to “crime scene”. To his big relief they took quite a lot of time which was bad in the big picture for New York, but Tony was glad that he hadn’t to take in whatever Loki and Rayne were discussing right now. Or doing.

Eventually Tony had to get back to the surveillance room, without the suit. After taking one step inside Tony knew what had been going on by the green colour of Steve’s face and his twisted lips. That was Steve’s face after he had had to listen to two guys having sex. He was probably thanking god right now that they hadn’t any cameras at Loki’s place.

That thought could distract Tony from his urge to throw up only for so long. Loki had massacred these… beings, he had been covered in blood and Tony hadn’t been gone for much time. They couldn’t have returned to Loki’s place and immediately… Tony felt the bile rising up his throat, but he was able to swallow it down despite his protesting stomach.

In complete silence Tony sat back down next to him, squeezing his shoulder while doing so. That was just as much for Steve as for him. The screens showed the floor and wall of Loki’s bedroom which only confirmed Tony’s suspicions that Rayne’s clothes had come off and where now lying in a corner. There was no sound for several minutes. Were they sleeping? Wasn’t what just had happened worthy of discussing? Was Rayne alright?

When words were finally spoken, they were a soft whisper. Raw and full of emotion. “I am scared.”

Loki’s answer was perfectly calm, even. Not really the voice of a man who had just cut several people down. “Of me?”

“No. Of what you make me feel.”

“And what is that?”

“I…” Rayne audibly hesitated, but then his voice was steady. “I was scared for you when… but I also felt excited. When you killed them I wasn’t horrified. I liked it.”

For a moment the words lingered in the air so everybody could grasp their revolting implications. Tony was still fighting his nausea when Loki replied, humming in content.

“I told you I would bring it all out.”

***

Fury’s order had been pretty clear, all of the Avengers could attest to that. As soon as Rayne put one foot back into headquarters, he was to report to the director.

Only problem was that Rayne didn’t show up, although he had arrived over half an hour ago. By the 40 minute mark Fury was ready to go up the walls. “Agent Romanoff, get up there and drag him out of his quarters. By his hair if necessary.”

Tony shifted in his chair, today even he had trouble to tell how things were going to work out.

Natasha returned five minutes later. Alone. “He will take another 10 minutes.”

Fury was so dangerously calm, Tony felt a shudder running down his spine. “Excuse me?”

“He said he would need another 10 minutes.” Natasha repeated matter-of-factly and Fury lost it. “What for?!”

Unmoved Natasha sat back down. “According to him Rayne has been throwing up since he got back until 15 minutes ago. He’s taken a shower and he wants to take another. I looked at him, director. He wasn’t kidding.”

Fury growled lowly, but even he had to know that it would be wrong to say something now.

“Not that surprising… there is no way he doesn’t feel dirty after last night. Having Loki kill that guy.”

Clint grunted in response. “Don’t be stupid, Stark. It was a perfect opportunity to gain more of his trust… also it was a mercy kill. Loki would have let him bleed out. Rayne knew that there was no other way.”

Yeah, but that didn’t mean that Tony had to like it.

True to his word Rayne showed up exactly 10 minutes later and he was a mess. His hair was still wet, there were rings beneath his eyes and the skin on his fingers and cheek was flaming red. It looked irritated. He must have been rubbing it excessively in these places.

Sitting down Rayne didn’t give anybody else the opportunity to speak up to him. His voice was hoarse and worn out. “Two days. I can do it in two days. I need the toxin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Question time:
> 
> \- Is Rayne falling apart before the mission ends?


	15. I just might lose everything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> I know - so soon? I couldn't help it, I had to write it all down. Read at your own risk ;)

Steve wasn’t keeping score, but this was definitely going to be one of the most uncomfortable talks of his life. Nevertheless it needed to be had, Steve wouldn’t be feeling okay with himself if he didn’t try. From the very first second Steve had felt uncomfortable with the nature of the mission. His agreement hadn’t been necessary and he had only given it, because all their other attempts to capture Loki had been in vain. Sometimes even pathetic. Steve just wanted people to stop dying.

That didn’t mean though that they could ruin another life while doing so. Perhaps Steve was exaggerating, but it was rather obvious that Rayne was cracking. Since nobody else was going to address this in front of Rayne, Steve felt obligated to talk to him.

There was no doubt that he was the least qualified person to do so, but  nobody else would.

Steve found Rayne hunched over a desk, filling out his reports. After taking a little breath Steve cleared his throat and approached the table. “Christian? Do you have a moment?”

Rayne raised his head, looking at Steve with an unreadable expression. “Captain… yes. What for?”

Sitting down next to Rayne Steve offered a timid smile. “To talk. I thought that maybe you’d like to do that.”

Rayne didn’t immediately dismiss him which was more than Steve had expected. “I was under the impression that everything had been said at the meeting.”

“Yes, but I thought that maybe there was something that you wanted to talk about? The meeting was all about the next steps and the toxin. Not about what you went through last night.”

Slightly confused Rayne tapped his pen against the paper and for a second Steve wondered why he was writing it by hand. “I don’t understand. I am already writing my report…”

“I know… What I mean is… What happened yesterday couldn’t have been easy for you and…” Steve quickly changed course when he saw Rayne’s eyes darkening. “… I am not trying to say that you can’t handle it. You’ve proven more than once that you can handle it. Nonetheless it was rather difficult to watch and it must have been even harder to… go through this. I can’t help but wonder if you might want to talk about it.”

The corners of Rayne’s mouth twitched dangerously. “Why would I want to talk about it?”

“Because nobody asked you how you were doing. So I am doing that now.”

Rayne dropped his pen as Steve smiled at him. “It’s not that I don’t see what you’re trying to do here, Captain and I appreciate it. Last night I witnessed him slaughtering those people, when I kissed him I tasted blood and I got their blood all over me… I slept with him like this. I slept in bloodied sheets and I had to listen to a maniac telling me that he is able to look into my head. That I am like him. I hope you will understand that I am not eager to talk about any of this.”

Yeah, Steve understood, he probably wouldn’t feel any different. Except that Steve wouldn’t have been able to do any of this. “I see. I just wanted to give you the opportunity.”

“I appreciate that, but I’d rather get the mission done. I am sure it will be all worth it afterwards.”

“Yes, everybody’s lives will be a lot safer with Loki in a cell.”

“Right, that too.” Rayne nodded before going back to his report and Steve realised that he had been talking about his way to the top that a successful mission would grant him. Unlike everything else Steve couldn’t understand these priorities.

At least all of them wanted this to be finally over.

 ***

“You’re too early.” Loki smiled as he opened the door. He looked relaxed, pretty even in casual clothes. He had probably already completely forgotten about the day before.

“That’s okay, right?”

Taking a step aside Loki nodded. “Absolutely.”

Inside the apartment Rayne leaned in for a kiss before putting up his jacket on the wardrobe.

Natasha hummed in satisfaction. “First camera in place. We’re up to a good start.”

Tony wasn’t as optimistic. “The angle isn’t that great.”

“Are planning on moving in?” With clear amusement Loki gestured at Rayne’s bag.

“No, but it’s a long weekend and I’ve invited myself to stay over. I hope that’s alright?”

Not a minute into this visit and Loki was already raising his eyebrows in slight irritation. “Yes. Why are you asking? That’s not your style.”

“I just… wasn’t sure if you had anything planned. If you have, can you just forget about it?”

Loki was still looking confused, but he eventually nodded. “I don’t mind. I’ll get you something to drink. Glass of wine be okay?”

Rayne nodded and walked into the living room area. It definitely worked into their favour that the apartment was very open, barely any walls to hinder the camera. By putting his bag on the couch table Rayne bestowed them with an even better visual. It also showed them that Rayne was definitely looking uncomfortable. Yesterday Tony would have complimented him on his acting skills, but today he wasn’t sure how much of it was show.

After a minute Loki came back with two glasses of wine, placing them also on the couch table, but with a bit of luck not directly in front of the camera. He didn’t offer one of them to Rayne though, instead he reached out and trailed his thumb over Rayne’s lower lip. Unlike the agent Loki wore an expression of utter content on his face. Right now they couldn’t look more different.

“You are especially beautiful today…” Loki was smiling and Tony wondered what he meant with that. Rayne seemed nervous, like sitting on needles, uncomfortable. Perhaps Loki meant exactly that.

Loki brushed his mouth tentatively over Rayne’s, then turned it into a real kiss. Gentle, but clearly a kiss with intention. Rayne reluctantly kissed back, letting Loki lead him. When their lips eventually parted Loki didn’t pull back but brushed his mouth over Rayne’s neck, caressing it with soft kisses. The agent’s eyes slid closed, his mouth dropped slightly open. Nonetheless his face gave away that he wasn’t enjoying himself.

Swallowing softly Tony turned to Natasha. “Is he faking that?”

“I don’t know. He would be good enough to pull it off, but I don’t know.”

Why would he fake it though?

“Loki…” With his hands on the god’s shoulders Rayne pushed him away. “I need to know what happened last night.”

Slightly surprised Loki quirked an eyebrow. “You will need to be more specific.”

“These… things.” Disgust was displayed on Rayne’s features. “They came to kill you, because you stole something from them.”

With his usual sleekness Loki nodded. “Exactly.”

“Are there more people coming for you? People who want to kill you?”

Once more Loki’s madness couldn’t be denied when he smiled. “There is a line, yes.”

Straightening up lightly Rayne ran on hand over his face, shaking his head. “I don’t… What if one of them is successful?”

Loki responded with an arrogant huff. “Highly unlikely.”

“But not impossible.”

“You’ve met me, you saw what I can do. The word ‘impossible’ should have lost a lot of its meaning.”

“So how many are there? The Avengers? Creatures like yesterday? Are they all going to come for you eventually?”

Leaning back Loki made a vague gesture. “Your planet has been safe for so long, so small and insignificant. I guess you can’t understand. There is always something or someone coming and I get away. That’s what I do, what I do best.”

“What if your luck runs out?”

“It has nothing to do with luck.” Loki chuckled softly. “You touched my magic. Didn’t you feel it? My power. The extent of it. Why worry about me when I could unleash it anytime. What did you see yesterday? Try to remember and tell me.”

His fingers brushed over Rayne’s jaw as he smiled.

“I… You weren’t afraid. You weren’t… you didn’t seem to use every trick in the book.”

“What else?”

“You didn’t… You didn’t use your magic.” Rayne stated eventually and Loki seemed perfectly content. “Exactly. Because it was nothing. You know what I would do if somebody were to do me wrong or I felt threatened or…” Loki stopped, his smile faltering for a second. “What I would do if I someone threatened you… Yesterday was nothing. Sport maybe. I could have ended it in seconds and I won’t hesitate to do something like that if necessary. There is no reason to worry. Only if you’re underestimating me and I severely hate being underestimated.”

Frustrated Rayne shook his head, balling both hands into fists. “This has nothing to do with me not having faith in your powers although I barely know what you’re capable of. I wouldn’t care if you were the most powerful being that has ever lived… maybe you even are. It doesn’t make a difference. How do you expect me to be calm and relaxed about the fact that there are people who want to take your life?”

“I am not…” For the first time during this conversation Loki didn’t know immediately what to say. “I don’t expect anything. I just hope that you will believe me when I tell you that I know how to take care of myself and that I am not friend of unnecessary risks. My life is very precious to me. Do you trust me with that?”

Rayne was brilliant. He let Loki wait for an answer and only slowly nodded. “Yes. Do you believe me that your life is precious to me too? I don’t care if people are coming and you have to cut them into pieces. If they want to hurt you, kill them all. I just care about the one which might happen to get you on a bad day.”

Loki’s smile vanished and there was something in his eyes. Just a glint. Tony thought it might be fear. “I know how to protect myself… and you.”

The next kiss had nothing uncomfortable about it. Intense, passionate and yet gentle. Tony felt bad for ever doubting Rayne. Finally it was clear where he was going with this and it was brilliant. Unfortunately Tony couldn’t feel the satisfaction he was supposed to.

“What did you steal? You stole the painting because you like it. You stole the sapphire for insurance. What else did you steal? Why would they kill you for it?” Rayne had pushed Loki into a lying position, resting his head on his chest.

“Would you like to see?” Loki was running his fingers through Rayne’s hair and the agent grumbled. “Yes, of course. I want to see it yesterday.”

A stone materialised in Loki’s open palm and although marriage was always the furthest thing on Tony’s mind, he immediately thought of engagement rings. What Loki had stolen resembled a small diamond. Hell, perhaps it even was a diamond.

Rayne took a good look at it. “What is it for?”

“I thought I could create a ring for you.”

Instantly Rayne’s head flung up. “Are you mad?”

“Most certainly, but at the moment I am merely having fun at your expense.” Loki laughed and clearly annoyed Rayne poked his chest before putting his head back down. “That wasn’t funny. Tell me. You didn’t steal it because it was pretty?”

“Only fools would look at it and just see a pretty stone. It’s a portal device. Immensely powerful. I can jump between dimensions without help, but it’s hard work. Strenuous. With this I could go anywhere without any effort.”

That also sounded a lot like insurance. An escape way.

“Do you only steal things that heighten your magic abilities?”

Loki shrugged and the diamond vanished in his hand. “Sometimes. It happens that I only steal something for entertainment. Or because I happen to want that very thing at that exact moment. Or when I happen to think that you would like it.”

Where the diamond had been just a second ago a bracelet appeared out of nowhere.

“Holy shit….”

Natasha shot Tony a glance. “What is it?”

“Do you see that? Gold, small diamonds. Looks like Cartier to me. My guess is about 50000 dollars. Hell, even I would look twice before buying that.”

“Well, he didn’t buy it.”

Rayne was sitting up again, staring with wide eyes at the piece of jewellery in Loki’s open palm. “You’re…”

Without any fuss Loki took a hold of Rayne’s hand and slipped the bracelet around his wrist. “For once this is actually only supposed to look pretty. Do you like it?”

Still speechless Rayne marvelled at the bracelet and Loki was clearly content with his reaction. “I take that as a yes?”

“I don’t think I want to know what this is worth…”

“Nothing if you don’t want it. Do you want it?”

Quickly nodding Rayne hoarsely whispered “Yeah. Yes, of course I want it…” There was no thank you. Rayne said it with the way he kissed Loki. When he placed his head back on Loki’s chest Rayne mumbled softly “You are really good at distracting me from being a little bit angry at you…”

“You aren’t angry at me. Not really.”

“Not as long as you are unharmed, no.”

Tony and Natasha kept watching for the next couple of hours, but Rayne didn’t bring up any of the points he was supposed to. No talk about the sapphire. He was getting impatient while Natasha waved off. “He is doing great, he is setting up the pieces, getting in position. It will be less suspicious if he takes his time.”

She was most probably right, but that didn’t mean that Tony had to like it. This mission had been going on long enough. Nobody could ask of Rayne to do this only one day longer and Loki needed to be detained, because he would always be uncontrollable danger for everyone on this planet. They had the toxin ready, they had a plan, Rayne just needed to put it into action.

None of that happened. Loki and him had dinner, they watched TV and everything on the surface looked nice, domesticated. Except for Rayne strategically placing his wallet and phone in the bedroom to get them surveillance there too. Nothing else happened that would have been of any importance for them.

Tony hated this mission.

 ***

Steve and Thor had taken the nightshift which was the most unexciting thing one could imagine. They were watching Loki and Rayne sleep. Or they were supposed to be. One hour ago Steve and Thor had started to play cards or Steve was trying to teach him. It was nice enough, they were almost starting to feel relaxed when a voice destroyed the deceptive silence.

A ball of green light hoovered in the air right above the bed, allowed them to see better and Steve slowly put together what had just happened.

Loki was sitting in bed, his back straight, panting. His skin was shining, slightly covered in sweat. Something must have brutally dragged him out of his sleep. Steve was opting for a nightmare and that filled him a feeling of dark satisfaction. Why should a murderer even have one peaceful night?

Next to him Rayne stirred, also sitting up. Voice still heavy with sleep. “Loki?”

Still breathing hard Loki brought one hand up, touching his own neck. “I’m alright…”

“He’s lying.” Thor stated the obvious and their game was completely forgotten. What was going on?

“No, you aren’t…” There was unmistakable gentleness in the way Rayne wrapped his arms around Loki from behind and rested his head on Loki’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

Now shaking his head Loki kept staring into pace and his hands closed tightly about Rayne’s arms. The agent didn’t seem to mind, he held on to Loki until the other one seemed ready to talk. Which took several minutes.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

“Something of that sort.”

His voice wasn’t shaking but Steve still thought that it sounded strange, distant. Perhaps Loki was still wrapped up in whatever horror he had just seen.

After pressing a kiss to Loki’s cheek Rayne asked him if he wanted to talk about it and this had the god closing his eyes. “I saw… I felt a shadow hoovering over me. It was closing in on me. From all sides. I couldn’t see it until it was everywhere. I got tangled in it. It wrapped itself around my wrists and ankles, held me down so I couldn’t move. Then…”

“Then what?” Rayne whispered against Loki’s skin.

“Then I felt a knife being thrust into my back and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t reach it. Because the shadow was holding me down…” Loki released a long breath and Steve could him see dragging his teeth over his lower lip.

It definitely sounded like a nightmare that made you lose all of your sleep. Since the ball of green light was still floating above them it was hard to tell, but Steve got the impression that Loki seemed paler than usual.

“But that was just a dream, right? Because I was so worried… Nobody could actually do that to you. Right?” Rayne was fantastic at putting this anxious note into his voice.

“Not if I see them coming.” Loki muttered darkly and Steve felt a shiver running down his spine. As if Loki was directly talking to him and Thor.

“And if you can’t? Please. I know that I am powerless next to you, nothing. I still want you to be safe, to keep you safe. There’s gotta be something we can do.”

That was it. They had only waited for an opportunity to get there. Now Loki only needed to take the bait.

Which he did.

“There is something…” Loki held out his right hand and the sapphire appeared in his open palm. “If I charge it with enough energy I could use said energy as an extension of myself. It would allow me to sense different energy approaching much easier…”

Good, that was it. Right there.

Looking over Loki’s shoulder Rayne took in the sight of the sapphire. “Why haven’t you done that yet? It sounds like a good thing.”

“Because I will be weak after doing that. Barely capable of using my magic at all. That’s not an experience I am keen on. I guess it can be compared to being sick, bedridden.” Loki spat the last word out and Rayne made a soothing noise, nuzzling his neck. “Is it dangerous?”

“No.”

“How long would you be… sick?”

“Hard to tell. A day? Maybe a day and a half.”

Rayne didn’t jump the gun on it. A couple of moments passed in complete silence before he made the unsure suggestion. “I could take care of you. When you’re not feeling well I could take care of you. I would want to do that.”

Steve could hear Thor holding his breath as Loki turned his head to look at Rayne. “I am also not very keen on you seeing me like that.”

“That’s just stupid. I want all of you, didn’t I say that? The power, the madness and if you’re vulnerable for one day and a half, then I want that too. Let me help you. There’s gotta be something I can do for you. Let me do that for you.” Rayne hinted at a smile, leaning his forehead against Loki’s temple. “Please.”

Loki took his time looking at Rayne before eventually nodding. “Okay.”

 ***

“The needle is made of Vibranium. It should easily be able to pierce his skin.” Fury handed Rayne a syringe filled with blue liquid and Rayne tightly closed his fingers around it. “You get three pills. All three of them together have the same dosage as the syringe. You’re completely free to use them however you want. Whatever dosage you think would be appropriate. Just don’t be greedy.”

Rayne nodded. “Trust me, director. I won’t.”

“Alright.” Fury turned to the Avengers, all suited up and ready to go. “Get him.”

 ***

Clint could see them through the window. Both of them on the couch, eating Chinese food. That had been Rayne’s suggestion. Loki should eat before filling the sapphire with magic, it would help him to feel better afterwards.

Putting down his binoculars Clint instead looked at the laptop next to him which delivered the better visual. “Team 1 speaking. No change here.”

Natasha responded promptly via the radio. “Team 2 in place. Sitting tight.”

Her voice was as calm as usual, but Clint was sure that her heart was racing like his own. Today it was finally happening. What they had all been craving to do ever since New York. Putting Loki behind bars. Making sure nobody else would ever get hurt or killed by him again. Everybody was ready to do their part.

Natasha, Steve, Bruce and a couple of heavily armed SHIELD agents were right in front of the door of Loki’s apartment. Clint himself, Tony and Thor were on the top of the building across the street. All of them were impatiently waiting for their opportunity. Constant tension was holding his body in a tight grip, like electricity. It didn’t help that Tony started complaining.

“Has ever anyone ever eaten this slowly?”

“Stark, shut up. They’re talking.”

All eyes turned back to the laptop where Rayne was putting his plate away. “Do you want something to drink? I’ll get us some water.”

“Thanks, that would be nice.”

Rayne disappeared from their screen and instead Clint got to watch Loki eating the rest of his noodles and then also putting his plate away. He indeed looked ready for a day in bed, wearing a loose long-sleeved shirt and sweatpants. Clint couldn’t stop picturing him like this in a cell and that was the happiest thought he had had in a long time.

When Rayne came back he put two glasses and a carafe of water on the table, but Loki shook his head. “I would like to get started.”

“You don’t seem very eager.”

“I am not. I will feel miserable.” Loki sighed as the sapphire appeared in both of his hands.

Sitting down next to him Rayne put a hand on Loki’s knee. “Hey, if you don’t want to do this we don’t have to do it today. We can still watch TV or go to bed.”

Loki was having none of that and thank God for that. “No, I want to get this over with.”

Nodding Rayne kissed Loki’s cheek. “Anything you need me to do?”

“Remember that I usually look like this. Marvellous.” Loki shot him a little grin and then turned serious again. “Okay…”

It started. The long, lean fingers around the sapphire began to glow in soft green light. During all it Rayne had his arm around Loki’s waist, his chin resting on his right shoulder. Seconds were turning into minutes and Clint didn’t dare to breathe like he felt something might happen any moment. That wasn’t the case for half an hour.

It was a slow change. Colour drained from Loki’s face, his skin turned faintly grey and dark rings started to appear beneath his half closed eyes. Definitely not a pretty sight and it made Clint realise that the word ‘energy’ was literal. Loki seemed to be giving actual life energy away.

They were going to get him. Finally.

“Are you alright?” Worried Rayne rubbed his thumb over Loki’s lower arm and Clint could see a drop of sweat running down the side of Loki’s face.

“Yes… almost done.”

Another ten minutes and the green light eventually disappeared. Loki slumped back against the back rest, his grip on the sapphire loosening.

Next to him Clint could hear Tony muttering “Damn, he looks like shit…”

True words and things couldn’t go better for them.

Grabbing the sapphire Rayne put it aside and cupped Loki’s cheek. “Hey… how are you feeling?”

Loki let his eyes fall closed and as he spoke Clint could see that his lips were completely dry. “Awful. I feel awful… sick.”

That much was obvious. He looked like he was about to pass out.

“Okay…” Rayne took a light breath. “How about you sleep for a little while? You’ll feel better when you wake up. How does that sound?”

“Good enough…”

“Right. Drink something and I’ll get you a blanket in the meantime.” Rayne handed Loki one of the glasses and the Asgardian weakly took it.

After brushing his lips over Loki’s cheek Rayne got up to get said blanket, but he only walked around the couch and stopped right behind Loki.

Clint saw Tony and Thor moving towards the edge of the roof and brought the radio up to his lips. “Everybody get ready. Rayne is in position.”

Nobody made a sound as Rayne pulled out the syringe and raised his hand. So that was it.

As he was about to give Natasha the information Clint felt his entire body tensing up. It was an unfamiliar feeling of dread coming over him, gripping every part of him while Clint could only watch and pray that his eyes were playing tricks on him. That he was wrong. That he didn’t see Rayne freezing.

 “No, no, no. Rayne, don’t do it!”

“Clint, what’s going…”

Then Clint could see the expression in Rayne’s eyes  and he was screaming into the radio. “Everybody get in there! He’s compromised! I repeat – Rayne is compromised! Everybody attack now!”

 ***

Christian stared at the back of Loki’s neck. His hair was pulled up, the almost grey skin completely revealed. Vulnerable. His eyes drifted to the syringe in his hand, the needle sparkling in the soft daylight.

Like a dagger.

What could only have been a second meant an eternity. When all his thoughts, desires and fears suddenly came to a halt. Vanished even. For that precise moment there was nothing at all.

Just the image of the dagger in Loki’s back.

Then the only feeling that Christian had banished such a long time ago came over him with full force. Hit him with the same impact of a bullet or even worse.

Panic.

Taking a hold of him and dictating him what to do although it was much too late now.

With a hollow sound the syringe dropped to the carpet and Christian had already forgotten about it as he jumped over the couch and knocked the glass out of Loki’s hand. There was no time and Loki’s hands were grey and cold when Christian grabbed them.

Staring up at him Christian saw Loki’s confused and weary gaze. “You have to leave! I am a SHIELD agent. The Avengers and a dozen agents are right outside the door. If there is any way, you have to leave…”

Loki’s green eyes were looking at him and Christian had no illusions about being prepared for his reaction. For the realisation of yet another betrayal.

Christian was right. He hadn’t been prepared for the insane grin that split Loki’s face. The beautiful green light of his magic washed over him and the sickly grey of Loki’s skin turned back into immaculate white. A hand with limitless strength closed around his throat, lifting him up from his knees.

“Now that took so much longer than I expected, Christian…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Question time:
> 
> \- What's going to happen?  
> \- Is Rayne to get out of there alive?


	16. I just might be forsaken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> Here we are. After this one only one chapter left. Let's get to it. 
> 
> Don't worry, I'll answer all of your comments, just need a bit more time

By the time Tony crashed through the window he had no idea that this was going to end up in a massacre. The message was quite simple. Rayne was compromised and Loki knew that they were coming. They still had the element of surprise on their side and Loki was significantly weakened. Six Avengers + 12 agents against one bad guy. This had to work out. They had no other choice at this time.

Shards of glass were raining down as Tony’s and Thor’s feet touched the floor of Loki’s apartment. Tony’s first thought was that Rayne was dead. Loki had one hand around his neck, holding him high enough that Rayne’s feet had lost contact with the floor.

Cocking his head Loki looked at them, his lips forming a deranged grin. “Well look at that. I would say ‘What a surprise to have you paying me a visit’, but it really isn’t.” Loki tossed Rayne aside like a spoiled child would throw away a toy. A pained moan reached Tony’s ears which told him that Rayne was still alive and then a ball of raw energy was already being thrown at him.

As Tony moved out of the way of the attack the whole apartment shook with the force of a small explosion. That was Team Number 2, blowing up the door and now storming into the apartment.

No element of surprise and as it turned out Loki wasn’t weakened at all.

He threw his daggers with the same precision as usual. One of them immediately found its target, piercing the throat of an agent.

Tony realised that the entire thing was a trap when Steve tried to launch at Loki and as he reached the middle of the room some form of magic got activated, set off and a golden force field appeared out of nowhere. The second Steve came in contact with it he was thrown back against the wall with a force that Tony rarely got to see. It wasn’t just Steve though. Completely on its own the force field moved backwards and every person on that side of the room received the same treatment as Steve.

Except that they weren’t super powered and Tony could hear wails in pain as bone were breaking and blood splattering across the walls.

“Brother, stop this!” Thor managed to take a swing with his hammer at Loki who ended up on the floor, still grinning. “But why, Thor? Don’t you enjoy watching me?”

That had Thor hesitating and Loki vanished, only to show up again right next to Natasha. She had suffered the same fate as Steve. Her hair was sticky with blood from where it had violently connected with the wall, her eyes were dazed and to Tony this looked like a dangerous concussion. The kind of where you definitely shouldn’t move.

Loki grabbed her at the back of her suit, pulling her up. “I will never understand how you even let them join you in your fight against me, Thor. Bones I can break without breaking a sweat.”

“Let go of her!” Tony aimed both repulsors at him, but he wouldn’t shoot and Loki knew that too. He’d be putting Natasha at risk.

“Gladly. What a waste of time.” Loki dropped her and the hammer was flung at him, Tony fired at the same time. Both of them missed as Loki teleported away. This time he reappeared right in front of Thor. “Have a nice trip.”

A familiar dark red rip opened a portal right behind Thor and Loki pushed him through it.

“Thor!” Tony was still screaming as the rip had already closed up and Loki marvelled at the diamond in his hand. “Beautiful.”

Natasha and Steve were out cold. Thor was gone. Some of the average agents were dead. There was nobody left but Tony and he was about to lose it. Decisions had to be made. Loki would turn to him any second and there was no time to come up with a plan. Tony settled for brute force.

Loki got hit by one blast before he was right in Tony’s face and the battle turned more or less into a fistfight. One that didn’t last long, because Tony was calling for back-up.

“Code green, Bruce. Clint, like we practiced. Only worse.”

The plan working out was a miracle. First a blast that had Loki stumble, then Tony fired one of his newest inventions. The Vibranium cuff attached itself to Loki’s wrist and then connected with the wall behind him. For the first time during the fight Loki wasn’t grinning. Actual surprise was written on his face. “What? You think your little device is going to hold me in place?”

“Long enough.”

Bless Clint and those perfectly sharp eyes that couldn’t be human. Loki snarled, grunted in pain when an arrow pierced his shoulder. Going through his flesh and then entering the wall. A second object to keep him exactly where he was. For maybe half a minute and that was all they needed.

“Your turn, big guy.”

First there was the terrifying roar and the change in Loki’s eyes showed that he knew what was going to happen. Yeah, take that you fucking bastard. This was the one thing that had proven to be effective against the god.

Sure, Loki could get free, but he couldn’t do in less than 10 seconds. The Hulk was already bursting through the door, taking big chunks of the wall with him. Loki’s hand closed around the arrow, pulling at it, but there was no point in it. If there was no way to sedate him, they were going to knock him out.

Just as the Hulk was about to reach Loki Tony witnessed an act of bravery. Or rather complete madness.

Tony had no idea when Rayne had scrambled back up to his feet. He had believed him to be out cold like everybody else. That wasn’t the case. Rayne just put himself between the Hulk and Loki as a human shield. The gun in his hand had to be from one of the other agents. He got the opportunity to fire it two times before it was too late.

In this state the Hulk wasn’t going to make any difference between a human being and a hostile Asgardian. Especially when the human had uselessly fired a gun at him. Tony would have screamed if there had been any point in that. The Hulk raised his fist to smash, not stopping and Tony readied himself for the inevitable sound of breaking bones.

The black pendant around Rayne’s neck suddenly started to glow and in less than a second Tony could see another force field appearing. This time it was black. A wall of energy between Rayne and the Hulk. A green fist connected with black glimmer and what Tony’s eyes took in, his mind wasn’t able to comprehend.

The impact was silent, but the consequence was immediate. Despite possessing unstoppable force the Hulk wasn’t able to pierce the force field and instead of just bringing him to a halt, it pushed him back. More than that. Tony watched, frozen to a spot, as the Hulk was thrown across the room like a puppet.

This couldn’t be true. None of this could be true.

Tony wasn’t alone though in his disbelief. Rayne himself stared after the Hulk, then at the pendant which had already stopped shining. Behind him Loki hissed as he pulled the arrow out of his shoulder and then ripped his wrist free. The insanity was nowhere to be seen, it had been replaced by utter shock. Rayne turned around and these two were staring at each other. Probably also trying to comprehend what had just happened.

Then Loki vanished into nothingness and it was Tony’s job to pick up the pieces.

 ***

“How long is this going to take? I can’t wait to get my hands on him…” Clint’s sombre tone and the darkness in his gaze didn’t leave any room for interpretation and although Tony could understand the sentiment, he wasn’t going to agree. “Somebody already did get their hands on him.”

When Tony had handed Rayne over to SHIELD he had been unharmed expect for a single bruise on his neck. He had complied easily, without saying a word, without protesting, without putting up a fight. They had snapped the cuffs around his wrist, shoved him into a van and only now Tony got to see him again. With a split lip, a cut through his eyebrow and a bruised cheekbone.

Not a much of imagination was necessary to know what had happened to him. Revenge severed immediately. Tony couldn’t say that he supported this, but he the sentiment wasn’t alien to him. Four of the agents were dead. The impact with the wall had either smashed their skulls or broken their necks. Natasha was still in critical condition. They were keeping Cap in the medical wing, although he was already feeling fine despite his concussion.

About Thor – they had no idea where Loki had sent him and there was no way to get to him. This was one of the things they had to ask Rayne, although there was only a slim probability of them getting an answer.

What the hell had happened? Until the very last moment Rayne had seemed so completely in control, driven by his ambition. Something that even Loki couldn’t take apart or manipulate. Nonetheless Rayne had turned his back on them within a split second. For what?

Tony wouldn’t have been this shocked if it had been someone else, but in his experience SHIELD agents, especially undercover agents, were cold. Hardly moved by anything except their goals. Any normal person would have started to have trouble with playing this game, being so close to somebody who completely opened up to them. Most people would have snapped a long time ago and for some reason Tony had actually believed that Rayne was pulling it off.

They all had been wrong, people were dead, one Avenger was maybe losing her life, Loki was on the run again and soon he was going to let his rage rain on them.

He had known though. Loki had known.

Tony balled his hand into a fist, his nails digging painfully deeply into his skin.

Now Rayne’s posture looked like it always had. His back was straight, his gaze calm but not empty. That guy knew what was coming to him and he was prepared. Tony knew that they weren’t going to get the emotions out of him that Loki had seen. Had those been real or all fake? It was so hard to tell now.

“What’s going to happen to him?”

Clint snorted. “Solitary confinement. They’re going to put him in a cell and throw the key away. That’s what happens to traitors.”

That sounded completely fair and horrible at the same time.

Finally the door to the interrogation room was opened and Fury and another, slightly younger men stalked into the room. Rayne tilted his head in acknowledgement, but that was all that he was giving them. Through the glass panel Tony could easily tell that Fury was hanging on by a threat and that he definitely wanted to add new bruised to Rayne’s face. It would be easy to do since Rayne’s wrists were tightly locked to the table.

“Agent Rayne.” The other man adjusted his glasses as Fury and him sat down opposite of Rayne.

“Mr. Brown. Director Fury.”

“I am going to be in charge of this interrogation. Will you please state your full name as we begin?”

“Christian Dominic Rayne.”

“How long have you been working for SHIELD?”

“11 years this July.”

Brown nodded and took a little note on the paper in front of him. “Will you please tell us in your own words why you were taken into SHIELD’s custody?”

“I gave up my cover and told the target about his impending arrest.”

Next to Tony Clint hissed as he leaned against the panel, desperate to reach through it. Him and Fury wanted Rayne’s skin while the agent or ex-agent was perfectly composed. Tony wouldn’t call him scared or detached. Rather highly aware of what was happening to him and having already come to terms with it.

Perhaps he was indeed as cold. Then why had Loki got the better of him?

Once more Brown nodded. “Exactly. Did you do that at your own free will?”

“Are you asking if I was being mind controlled?” The question didn’t seem to surprise Rayne.

“I believe it’s a valid question to ask given Loki’s backstory.”

Meeting his eyes without hesitation Rayne shook his head. “That was my own decision.”

“How can you be sure that you weren’t being influenced? Would you even know?”

“I’ve read every mission report on Loki. The mind control was caused by the sceptre, not by him. Also agent Barton and other victims described the state of control as them being aware of what they were doing despite not wanting to do it.” Rayne paused to make his message perfectly clear. “I wanted to tell Loki. That was my decision.”

Finally Fury wasn’t able to hold back any longer. “Did you think he was going to get you the promotion that you crave so badly?”

Tony expected snark, but Rayne merely shook his head. “No, I didn’t think that.”

“So what did you think? Why still run with the mill when you could have a god at your personal lapdog to get you what you want? Too bad that he looked through your game. Not as good undercover work as you’d like to make believe.”

“Director Fury, please.” Brown raised a hand. “I am trying to get to the bottom of this. Agent Rayne, your resume is very impressive. Not one failure as an undercover agent until today. You’ve had longer assignments. Do you enjoy your line of work?”

“I am very good at it and most of the time yes, I do enjoy it.”

“After 11 years of impeccable work – why are you still out in the field?” Brown raised an eyebrow at him and Tony was pretty sure that they were doing some kind of interrogation technique here. Talking about Rayne’s background instead of what had happened today.

“You’ve said it yourself, my work was impeccable. Perfection doesn’t raise attention. I got in there and got my job done. I didn’t leave a mess or made a spectacle. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to get one very far. Being a turncoat or leaving 20 bodies behind in Budapest is a more effective way to rise within SHIELD’s ranks.”

Clint snarled and Tony patted his shoulder.

“Is that why you revealed yourself to Loki? You didn’t feel valued enough?”

For the first time now Rayne’s expression changed. It almost looked like a smile. “Bringing in Loki couldn’t have been overlooked. It would have offered me every opportunity imaginable.”

“And yet you didn’t.” Brown stated and Rayne’s smile faded. “Have you cooperated with Loki before today?”

“No.”

“Has there ever been any communication going on between the two of you that SHIELD wasn’t aware of?”

“No.”

“Have you deliberately given him clues that might have made him realise that you were an agent?”

Rayne negated once more and Brown wrote down his notes. Tony didn’t get why they just wouldn’t ask him why he did it. Why the hell would he throw his entire career and possible life way to save Loki’s ass? That was the question Tony was waiting for and what did he get instead?

“Did you enjoy sleeping with Loki?” There was nothing funny or even obscene about the question. Matter of fact and Brown expectantly looked at Rayne over the edge of his glasses.

Rayne didn’t give them the satisfaction of looking uncomfortable, but Tony thought he could see him move his fingers. Only god knew if that meant something. “Yes.” Not a hint of shame or embarrassment there.

“Why? I imagine it had to be a stressful situation. Being completely vulnerable in the presence of a person who is so much stronger than you and who could easily kill you if he knew about your intentions.”

“It was part of the mission. If I found enjoyment in it was secondary. Why did I enjoy it? He is beautiful. Skilled. Attentive. He asked what I wanted and then gave it to me.”

“Did the fact that you enjoyed the sexual encounters play a part in your decision to betray the mission and put everyone’s life, including your own at risk?”

Once more Rayne answered with a single word “No.”

Tony swallowed slightly. Sure, they all had at one point actually seen the two of them having sex and Rayne had never seemed uncomfortable. It wasn’t though that anybody had paid extra close attention, because that would have been too weird. Also Tony had to admit that he hadn’t thought very hard about what went on in Rayne’s head during those encounters. A means to an end. So many people used sex to get where they wanted to go without ever getting emotionally involved.

“Were you at any point aware that Loki had figured out your real identity?”

This wasn’t the question that Tony had expected to get a reaction out of Rayne. Now his fingers were curling into fists and his features hardened. Maybe unconsciously Rayne was dragging his teeth over his lower lip and accidentally touched the split. He winced. “No, I wasn’t aware. I thought myself in perfect control the entire time. I thought I had him eating out of my hand.”

For once there was just the hint of bitterness in Rayne’s voice. Why? Because he hadn’t been able to deceive Loki or something else?

As neutral as usual Brown continued to take notes. “So if in your mind Loki had no idea, what did you expect to happen as you gave up your cover? His gratefulness? Collaboration?”

“I’ve made that decision within a single second. There was no time to think about the consequences it would have for me. I wanted him to get away and even if he had had no idea about who I was… a knife in my guts would have been the most likely consequence.”

“And that would have been okay for you? Him walking away and you dying?”

“Most likely consequence… not guaranteed. I am still here.”

“So you don’t believe that he will come after you to get revenge?”

Lowering his eyes Rayne smiled. “Oh, he will come most certainly. I’ve played him for a fool and I betrayed him like his family. I guess he only played along for fun or to show me that he was the one in control all long, his superiority. He promised that he would ruin me if I was to do him wrong and I lied straight to his face. Sure, my life is already ruined, but I doubt it will be enough for him. I suppose he will also want his necklace back.”

Fury let out a sarcastic laugh. “Yes, that’s not going to happen. It’s SHIELD property now, the only thing anybody got out of this mission.”

Rayne didn’t give an answer and finally Tony realised why he was so calm. This was a man absolutely aware that there was somebody coming to kill him. He was done.

Eventually Brown took off his glasses, searching Rayne’s eyes. “Agent Rayne, why did you manipulate the mission and help Loki escape?”

“I couldn’t stand the thought of putting a knife into his back.”

Tony could hear Clint gritting his teeth and Fury snorted. “Sentiment? Really Rayne?”

Turning his head to fury Rayne gave him a hard stare. “I also believe that he is right.”

“What about?”

“Everything.” Rayne’s eyes travelled across the room, to the glass panel. “All of this is nothing. For years I thought about how far I would go in this organisation when it’s all built on pillars of sand. We are powerless. He let me touch his magic, I’ve felt it. The power inside of him. He could do this…” Rayne opened his fist and then curled his fingers back together. “And it would all fall apart. It would mean nothing to him.”

“So what do you think? Should all of humanity just roll over and accept the power of one maniac? SHIELD isn’t afraid to take on an enemy no matter how powerful he is.”

Shaking his head Rayne replied in a very simple way. “An ant has no quarrel with a boot.”

Fury opened his mouth, but Brown shook his head. “You’ve made your decision today, but when did you first start thinking about not completing your mission?”

“I am not sure. There was… a moment when he let the bruises on my neck disappear that I allowed myself to think… Then there was the night that he killed those creatures that came for him.”

“What about that?”

Rayne met his eyes without hesitation, his voice even and calm. “I wasn’t lying to him. I liked it. Watching him how easily he could kill them. Then seeing him covered in blood without a scratch himself. I liked him touching me with his bloodied hands. I liked the taste of blood when he kissed me and I would have enjoyed seeing him killing them over and over again.”

Every word was like a sharp needle being shoved into Tony’s skull, they made him shudder and wince in agony. How could they not have seen this?

“What about the agents that died today, agent Rayne? Do they have your sympathy? Do you feel responsible for their deaths? Or would you also like to see them dying all over again?”

“Sympathy? No. If I had been able to do something at the moment they pointed their guns at him – I would have tried to kill them myself.”

Brown took his notes as Fury shook his head. “You crazy fuck. That damned bastard really twisted your mind…”

Rayne slowly exhaled. “I’m sorry, director, but I don’t think he did.”

The heavy silence lasted for about a couple of seconds until Brown asked a question that Tony still didn’t think to be possible. “Agent Rayne, are you in love with Loki?”

There was no answer to this question, because Fury got a message via his ear piece. “Yes, this is Fury. Now? We’re still in the middle of… Alright.”

Two pairs of eyes were focused on him as Fury explained what he had just learned. “You’re being shipped off the Raft. You can consider yourself lucky, Rayne. You’ve finally captured the attention of the highest ranks. A member of the World Security Council is here. They want to talk to you to decide what to do with you.”

Not exactly surprised Rayne nodded, then hinted at a resigned laugh. “I guess that means Loki won’t have to bother with what is going to be left of me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Question time:
> 
> \- How do think this is going to end?  
> \- How do you WANT this to end?


	17. I just might be yours

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> Well, that chapter happens to be twice as long as usual, but I told you there would only be one left, so I didn't split it. 
> 
> This story comes to an end and I want to thank everybody so much for reading it. It definitely was one of the things I enjoyed writing the most. 
> 
> Tell me what you think and have fun :)
> 
>  
> 
> [Do you want a sequel to "Catfishing"?](https://www.poll-maker.com/poll1957799xCD584BFf-53)

“These assholes have never showed up once for us…“ Tony mumbled absently as Mr. Brown got up from his chair. At least they knew now that the World Security Council would never show up to pat somebody on the back, but to completely fuck you over after you screwed up.

Except that Rayne was partly responsible for the death of several agents and Tony wasn’t going to think of Natasha now, because otherwise he would break down.

The door to the interrogation room was opened and two security details walked inside, looking grim like they expected a gun fight any second. Behind them was a rather petit, middle aged woman. Just by looking at her Tony could tell that she meant business. The outfit was similar to something that Pepper would wear. The type of woman who was sitting behind a desk all day, pulling strings and owning everybody who worked for her. Judging by her face she was made of stone.

“Councilwoman Hawley.” Fury stood up to greet her, but she didn’t even glance at him. Instead she sat down on Fury’s chair which clearly hadn’t been his intention. “Mr. Brown, please sit down with me.”

Any other time Tony would have laughed at Fury’s face since he had clearly thought that it was going to be him and the Councilwoman sitting at the table. Now he was standing in the corner.

“Agent Rayne, given the mission reports I have received so far I was convinced that I was going to shake hands today with the person who made it possible to arrest a mass murderer, a threat to all mankind. Instead I am sitting face to face with a traitor.”

“I am sorry to have disappointed you, Councilwoman.” For the first time during this interrogation Rayne didn’t sound like he meant what he said.

“It’s not that I care personally much about your motives, but the records need to be completed and I want to hear out of your own mouth. What were you trying to gain when you sabotaged the mission?”

“Loki’s freedom.”

The Councilwoman smiled sharply. “I fear you will soon find out that it wasn’t worth the price you’ll be paying for it. You’ve been already informed that you will be moved to the Raft as soon as this conversation is over. Before that there is only one piece of information that we’d like to know before you’ll be shipped off.”

Not answering Rayne waited for her to ask whatever question she still had in store. “I have seen the footage of your betrayal. Very impressive and yet pointless. There is only thing we want to know. Did you have a hand in activating the necklace when the Hulk attacked you?”

Of course. Tony should have known. Capturing Loki was old news, now it was all about the necklace which was powerful enough to fight off the Hulk. Yeah, Tony got that.

As calm as before Rayne shook his head. “No, I did nothing at all.”

“You have no idea how it can be activated?”

“No.”

Tony believed him, he had seen the expression on Rayne’s face when the necklace had created the force field. He had had no idea.

Councilwoman Hawley clearly wasn’t content with that revelation, but she had to work with it. “So how did it get activated?”

Rayne gave the next fact without any satisfaction. “Loki gave it to me to protect me and it did exactly that.”

The smile which appeared on the councilwoman’s face wasn’t exaggerated, but it was definitely cruel. “I see. Then why were the agents able to take it off your neck without any difficulty? Why didn’t it protect you from them as they beat and kicked you?”

Again, another reaction from Rayne although he tried to keep it subtle. The muscles of his face tensed and he balled his hands to fists. No response came over his lips and Clint made an apprehensive thought. “Oh, that son of a bitch has been playing him all along…”

“As the Hulk came rushed towards you, you were standing right in front of Loki. Isn’t it more likely that the necklace was protecting him? It worked there, but it didn’t do anything to protect you when you were alone? Isn’t it possible that this has never been its intention?” Her voice made it sound like she was asking any question, not one that was specifically meant to make Rayne uncomfortable.

“Fuck me, look at that.” Clint softly nudged Tony. “He’s hurt. He probably still thought that Loki did care at some point.”

Tony couldn’t deny that it made quite an impression on him when Rayne finally turned his head away, avoiding the Councilwoman’s gaze. “That is possible.”

“In this case your input will not be needed for further examination of the necklace. Director Fury, I entrust you with the responsibility of transporting agent Rayne to the Raft. I hope you will do a better job at this than at the previous mission.”

Hawley stood up, shot Fury a sharp glance and then turned to Mr. Brown. “I expect the protocol of the interrogation on my desk by this evening.”

Mr. Brown nodded and said his goodbyes while the councilwoman left without any more words, her security followed her closely.

Fury brought his phone up to his ear. “Get transportation ready. Prisoner transfer to the Raft. High security.”

So that was done with. Tony released a shaky breath. “Is he going to get a trial right? We’re not really going to lock him up and throw the key away like we would have done with Loki?”

“Oh, he’s going to get a trial. Right now they’re taking him to the Raft for security reasons.” Clint couldn’t have possible used more sarcasm. “Because Loki might still come for him to rip him apart. So he’s going to the Raft, hopefully one of the few places Loki wouldn’t be able to get in. It’s also far away and under SHIELD’s control. Guards who know that he is a former colleague, who know that he let Loki kill other agents. They’re going to make his stay there a nightmare and SHIELD is going to make sure that it’s going to take a long time before he is going to trial, because after being officially convicted he is going to be transferred to another prison. One hell of a way to fuck up your life for Loki.”

Tony didn’t feel any satisfaction while hearing that, but he couldn’t deny there was a need for harsh punishment. How was there any worse crime than cooperating with Loki? A person who was an enemy to all mankind. Who was now still roaming free, ready and most probably preparing to kill more innocent people. Rayne would also have to add these people to his conscience. Hopefully Natasha wouldn’t be part of them.

 ***

Bruce called them from the hospital, telling them that Natasha was out of the woods, but that it had been a close call. With Natasha starting the long road to recovery and Rayne on his way to the Raft it was time to pick up the pieces of a failed mission. People had died, so it was their duty to find something in their mission that was of worth.

Tony joined in as Clint returned to Loki’s apartment to check out the agents work there. They were going to take everything with them, trying to figure out some of Loki’s secrets like that. It was a surprise that Loki had actually left a lot of things behind. Hundreds of books, the French parchment and even the sapphire. Which probably meant that all these things were in reality worthless or they weren’t of any use for Loki anymore.

“He knew that we were coming. Do you really believe that he would let us have anything of worth?” Clint’s doubts were more than justified, but Tony was willing to think outside of the box. “Sure, but it’s Loki. He might be arrogant enough to believe that he wouldn’t be able to do anything with his stuff anyway. Because we’re too stupid. We’re going to take everything, but we gotta be careful… Could still be part of his trap…”

As Tony was picking up the sapphire, wearing his iron gloves, Clint was checking out the books on the shelf. “Runes and other scriptures that I’ve never seen. Probably indeed alien. Maybe Thor will be able to read them.”

If they got to see Thor again…

“Any notes? Anything handwritten?”

Several agents who had checked the desk negated that.

“Okay, that means he definitely cleared some things out…”

Everything personal as it turned out. They got Loki’s library and several stolen artefacts out of his apartment. The next day SHIELD’s labs were full of new stuff, but Tony was only looking at one thing in particular, with Bruce next to him. The pendant was deep black with golden sparks. Lying there on the table, looking like any other ordinary piece of jewellery.

It hadn’t been an easy task, but they had been able to convince SHIELD that they were going to be part of the team who was going to work on it. “This is going to be so much fun.”

Bruce wasn’t as excited. “I don’t think so, but this little stone managed to knock out the Hulk, so I’m not going to leave here until we’ve found out how it works.”

“Like I said, it’s going to be so much fun.”

 ***

Fun came to an end pretty quickly, but it had nothing to do with necklace. It took Loki a week to rain revenge on them and granted, he did it in a very precise way. He wasn’t going after the Avengers or visited the Raft, none of that. This time he did a lot more damage with way less bloodshed. Tony felt bad for thinking that, because twenty soldiers died nonetheless.

Soldiers, not agents.

One week after their failed attempt to arrest Loki all alarms went off in every SHIELD facility. Not just there, but in every military base and in the White House. Later on Tony heard that they first suspected Russia, North Korea or some terror organisation. It was way worse unfortunately.

At 2:33 pm Loki popped up right in the middle of a high security area and took the place apart. Very fast. Tony had only been halfway there when most area had already gone up in flames. For him it was a relief that Loki hadn’t gone especially for human beings this time.

What had he had gone for? SHIELD wouldn’t say, but Tony wasn’t stupid and Jarvis was perfectly willing to fill in the blanks. It turned out to be poetic justice.

“I guess that was his way to tell us that we shouldn’t try watching him again… Now nobody is going to watch anybody anymore. Edward Snowden is probably inviting Loki to a drink now.”

The most recent events had successfully thinned out Fury’s patience and he snapped instantly. Tony could understand, as director of SHIELD is probably going to be made partly responsible for this.

“Shut your mouth, Stark! This is a fucking disaster! That son of a bitch just jeopardized the security of our nation! You of all people should know what that means!”

Tony shrugged and decided to be an asshole about it. “It means that this country is not going to listen to anyone’s phone conversations for a long time.”

“He destroyed all of the servers! All of the data is gone! Which is not just the government listening in on Average Joe’s conversations but information on terror organisations, national security and –“

Rolling his eyes Tony waved off. “I know. We all know. You’ve screaming the same words for half an hour now. Loki put the NSA out of business, burned their servers and brought down a surveillance satellite. He was sending a message. No more spying. I think we should consider ourselves lucky that he didn’t do something worse.”

Before Fury could go off again, telling him how there was nothing worse than SHIELD and other US organisations not being able to spy on anyone for a longer period of time, Steve weighed in on the conversation. “Tony, people died at the data centre.”

“I know, but he went of the machinery. About 200 people worked at the base and about 20 died. It could have been worse. Also, SHIELD is definitely not salty about the killed soldiers, but because Loki send them back into the Stone Age.”

Since Fury decided to glare at him instead of saying something Tony felt perfectly confirmed in his statements.

“What about Rayne?”

Everybody turned to Clint, slightly surprised by his question.

“What do you mean?”

“Tony is right, Loki just got back at SHIELD for spying at him. He is taking revenge. Has he done something about Rayne?”

Finally Fury had something else to say than reproaches and swear words. “I had a phone call with the Raft as soon as we knew that the attack on the data base was orchestrated by Loki. Rayne is still sitting in his cell.”

Clint merely nodded and it was Steve who made a pretty good point. “Maybe that was it. I won’t pretend that I actually get the importance of the servers, but he has done more damage to SHIELD than there has ever been before, right? And Rayne… he is in prison. His career and life are pretty much over. I can’t look into Loki’s head, but to me it seems like he… why would he come for him? He could have killed him any time, I guess he probably wants him to live with the knowledge that he ruined his own life for… nothing.”

That sounded cruel enough for Loki to actually do it. For now Tony would let himself believe that they were back to the status quo. Them against Loki like it had always been. Except for Thor being missing in actions and Natasha being still in hospital.

 ***

About two months after Loki’s attack Steve and Natasha dropped by at the tower. Despite having been released from the hospital one week ago Natasha was still far away from going back on Avenger duty. Today had nothing to do with work, SHIELD’s disarray or anything else rather unpleasant. They were having drinks, hanging out and Steve wasn’t ashamed to admit that he definitely needed that.

Sure, the last weeks had been pretty quiet, not reason to suit up and life was coming back to normal. Or at least Steve wished for that to happen. Looking at Natasha told him that there was still a long way to go. Until two months ago Steve had foolishly considered that it was impossible to hurt her. Now he could see her trying to never change position on the couch, because certain movements caused her pain and the cuts of the fight still hadn’t faded.

Tony and him shared a glance and they silently agreed that they had nonetheless been luckily. Nobody had died… Right? Nine weeks without a word of Thor and no way to locate him. Steve just wouldn’t even try to imagine what that could mean.

“You should go on holiday, Nat.” Tony pointed out while sipping on his glass of wine. “Lie down on the beach and let the sun bleach out your hair. New York is really not the place to be at the moment. Fury is pissy as fuck…”

“Tony…” Steve sighed, but he couldn’t deny the obvious. It wasn’t just fury though, every person that worked for the government had been awfully tense for the last couple of weeks and Steve doubted that it would get any better anytime soon. Everybody was trying to build back up what Loki torn down within a minute and what had taken to years to build up.

“Sounds like a nice idea, but not really my style.” Natasha offered them a smile. “I would get bored immediately and start to…”

They didn’t get to know what Natasha would do after a long day at the beach. Jarvis alarmed them, there were strange energy signatures building up on the roof top. Despite their protests Natasha joined them on their investigation and while Steve was ready for a fight he was overwhelmed with happiness.

“I’ve never been happier to see you, my friends.”

Steve was the first one to give Thor a hug. Yes, now everything would be okay. Steve just knew it.

 ***

The call came in the middle of the night and for once Tony had been actually sleeping. Growling softly Tony rolled over and reached for his phone. “Fury, I’m sick of telling you that I am not going to build the government’s new spy playground and…”

“Would you once shut up and let somebody else talk, Stark?” Clearly annoyed but not as aggressive as usual. “You’ve been working on the necklace, so I thought I would let you know. The World Security Council is very upset about the lack of process.”

“Well, too bad for them. I haven’t touched it in three months. They have their own people on it.” Tony closed his eyes again, already half way back to sleep.

“Right and they just as unsuccessful as you. Given the national security disaster they want a success story and since all attempts to activate the necklace have failed they’ve decided to bring in Rayne.”

That information had Tony sitting up straight. “What? What is he supposed to do? He already stated that he had no idea how it worked. Also the Councilwoman was nice enough to make us all realise that it wasn’t protecting him but Loki.”

“Thank you for the reminder, Stark, I was there too. Anyway every person working on it, including you and Doctor Banner, has ended up in a dead-end. So they want to bring in the only person who ever made it work. Since you can’t expect any member of the Council to make their way to the Raft, he’ll be transferred to SHIELD headquarters tomorrow morning. We’d like you to take care of the air surveillance.”

Well, Fury was basically asking nicely, wasn’t he? “Just give me the time and I’ll be there.”

After hanging up Tony did the maths in this head. Seven months. To be honest after Thor had come back Tony hadn’t thought of Rayne. The Avengers were reunited and Loki had indeed lain low for quite some time. Sure, he had shown up around the globe, going back to what he did best. Stealing things and causing havoc. Almost like nothing had happened. So yeah, Tony had pretty much forgotten about the agent who had now been incarcerated at the Raft for over half a year now. Tony didn’t think that this was going to be a nice reunion.

The following morning Tony showed up punctual and for once did as he was told. That meant tailing the plane which brought Rayne to the mainland and then followed the prisoner transport to the headquarters. Nothing of interested happened. Definitely exaggerated security measures. Tony only didn’t mind, because there was no way he was going to miss that interrogation.

Steve and Clint felt the same way. Natasha was on a mission and Thor was back in Asgard. Bruce had decided to stay away for obvious reasons.

That had the three of them standing in the same room as six months ago. In silence they looked through the glass panel, waiting for the prisoner to be brought in.

“Any idea what they are trying to gain from this?” Clint shot Tony a questioning glance which only earned him a shrug. “No idea. I’ve worked with the necklace. We ran every test imaginable. Our analysis said that it was an ordinary stone. No powers, no nothing. We couldn’t trigger anything, not with science, not with simple firing at it. It got triggered when Rayne jumped in front of Loki, so they’re going to ask him.”

“Isn’t it more likely that the necklace simply reacted to Loki being in danger?”

“Sure, but they’ll still ask him if he felt anything or… what do I know? I guess we’ll see. By now they seem to be pretty desperate for anything positive to come out of this mission.” Tony shrugged, seriously wondering himself what they were trying to gain from this. It was reeking of desperation.

Their conversation came to an end when the door to the interrogation room was being opened and all three of them stepped closer to the panel to get a good look. Tony heard Steve gasp before his own eyes had even taken in Rayne’s appearance.

He wasn’t alone, of course. Two very big officers / agents were dragging him more or less inside. Walking had to be a chore if both of your feet were chained together, just like his hands. Tony would have expected that kind of treatment to be reserved for serial killers or someone with powers. The chains though weren’t what made his stomach curl and what robbed his speech for a rather long moment.

Next to him Steve mumbled hoarsely “What did they do to him?”

Tony’s thoughts went to the first time he had seen Rayne. An almost impeccable appearance, a guy you could easily call pretty. Maybe even beautiful. After seven months at the Raft there wasn’t much left of that. His hair had grown longer, but the cut was sloppy and uneven. Clearly done by somebody who didn’t know what they were doing or they hadn’t cared. But what did Rayne’s hair matter?

What made Tony taste bile in the back of his throat was the way that prisoner uniform hung on his limbs. During their observations Tony had seen Rayne’s body from all possible angles. Lean, trained, fit. That uniform would have fitted him seven months ago. Now it seemed two sizes too big. The loss of weight wasn’t just visible because of his clothes. Rayne’s cheekbones were standing out in an unhealthy way and that was only the start. The skin just beneath his eyes seemed to be a darker shade, almost grey. Obvious proof for lack of sleep.

If that had only been all of it.

There was a fresh bruise on Rayne’s right temple, a fading one on his jawline. The paleness of his skin made the yellow and purple stand out even more. For a second Tony’s brain was overcome by naivety when he wondered if the split lip hadn’t healed in over seven months. Of course it had. This injury was fresh. And all of that was just on his face. The part of his body not covered by clothing.

Turning to Clint Steve voiced his confusion and shock. “Did you say that he was going to be in solitary?”

With a grim expression Clint nodded. “He is. Those weren’t other inmates.”

Realisation didn’t need to settle in, just watching Rayne made obvious who had done that to him. Although he was complying, Rayne was ruggedly shoved down onto the metal chair by the guard to his right. A tall man with small grey eyes and Tony loathed him immediately.

Rayne initially winced then straightened his posture and finally Tony spotted something that hadn’t changed. Still the same calm and focused gaze despite how worn down his body appeared to be. The guard attached Rayne’s cuffs to the table and then both of them stepped back, right behind him.

“Has… has this been going on the entire time?” Steve was struggling for words and Tony couldn’t reply, Clint had to do that. “He is a traitor that got SHIELD agents killed and then fired a gun at an Avenger to save the killer. The Raft is a facility controlled by SHIELD. What did you expect to happen?”

“What? Do you condone this?”

“No, but I don’t deny that I would have done the exact same thing to him if I had got to lay my hands on him after the mission failure.”

Tony wasn’t a hypocrite, he had felt the same anger and a little part of him told him that Rayne had made his own bed and he to lie in it. But for seven months? Or was it just the sadist vibe that he got from the one guard which made Tony squirm.

It was a huge relief to have the door opening again, because it stopped them from having to think about Rayne’s treatment. Fury and Councilwoman Hawley entered the room, accompanied by Hawley’s security. She shortly eyed a passive Rayne before turning to Fury. “Thank you, Director. I will talk to the prisoner alone.”

Naturally Fury was immediately protesting. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Councilwoman.”

“Since your contributions to Rayne’s last interrogation were rather fruitless and unnecessarily emotional I will handle this alone. This was not question.”

Scowling Fury nodded and shuffled back outside while Hawley sat down opposite of Rayne. Without any subtlety she checked out the injuries on his face, even tilting her head to get a better look, then her eyes darted to that piece of shit guard. “Agent Flint taking good care of you, agent Rayne?”

Now it was Tony who was left gaping. Sure, everybody had a cruel streak, but this was just…

“As had to be expected.” Rayne replied calmly.

“Still no regrets? Seven months in a cell at the Raft. Two more to go before you’re going to be put on trial and what for?”

Rayne wasn’t taking the bait. “I am sure I was not brought here to discuss my motivations or regrets, Councilwoman.”

“Very quick to catch on and still so easily fooled.”

Rayne winced at the obvious allusion how Loki had played him but remained silent.

Hawley gave one of her security guards a little sign and he stepped forward, handing her a transparent box that contained the necklace. Placing the box on the table Hawley looked back at Rayne. “The most intelligent men the world has to offer have taken a look at it and nobody was able to crack its secret. You did. How?”

“I am confused. Half a year ago you made me understand that I had nothing to do with it. That it was all Loki. What do you expect me to do?”

Tony was with Rayne on this one, but Hawley remained calm and rough. “It most definitely reacted to Loki, but you were wearing it. So I want you to tell me exactly what happened.”

“You have it on video.”

“Rayne, you don’t seem to understand that your cooperation can either improve or worsen your detainment.”

“Oh, you mean if I tell you which button to push agent Flint will only beat me up once a week?” Rayne raised a questioning eyebrow and Tony winced while Steve let out an actual curse.

Hawley seemed unbothered tough. Those top sharks were cold as ice. “There have been different suggestions about how to find out if you can help in this situation. One was to put the necklace around your neck and fire a gun at you. I would rather not go there, so why don’t you stop being a smartass and start talking? You’ve made a fool out of yourself, thinking you were at the top of your game while you were being played yourself. You’re already paying the price for it, so stop humiliating yourself by trying to make this harder on us.”

Then they got to see that the abuse and the imprisonment had indeed taken a toll, because Rayne exhaled audibly before quietly stating that he didn’t do anything. “I just jumped in front of him. I didn’t even think about the necklace.”

Content that Rayne was finally talking Hawley leaned back and elegantly crossed her legs. “So what did you think?”

There was the old Rayne looking directly at her. “That I had to try to protect him.”

Tony gave Steve a look and the blonde replied with a helpless gesture.

“Is that arrogance the reason why you failed your mission? How would you even be able to protect him? A being so much more powerful than you?” Hawley knew how to pour salt into a wound and that actually had Rayne raising his chin. “It doesn’t work this way.”

“Then how does it work?”

“I didn’t think if I could do or not. I just felt like I had to. For betraying him.”

Seconds passed without anyone saying something. Many different emotions were flying around. Tony could see the disdain on Flint’s and the other agents’ faces. Hawley’s scepticism and Rayne’s raw honesty. Himself? Tony had no idea what to think.

“Do you feel sorry for that?” Hawley asked and Rayne nodded. His voice was strained and there was the regret Hawley had been asking about. “Yes and you are right. I was an arrogant fool. So wrapped up and confident in my own strategy that I didn’t notice that he completely had me. While I never had him.”

Silence again. Weighing heavily on everybody and Tony remembered that last question that Mr. Brown had asked seven months ago and which Rayne had never got to answer. Well, he might have answered it right now. The way his eyes darted to the side, filled with unmistakable regret.

“Oh, you had him.”

Everybody was brought back to the here and now. Rayne turned his head back, surprise etching on his face. “What?”

Hawley slowly repeated what she had said. “You had him.”

Clearly not understanding where she was going with this Rayne slightly shook his head, his mouth dropping open.

Unfazed Hawley continued. “He allowed himself being smitten with you. Your wit, your thirst, your curiosity, your baseness, your gift of manipulation and your willingness to use it. When you held him after he had put his hand around your neck, he didn’t know what to do with himself. Because he felt safe and wanted which were both unfamiliar feelings. You got to see all the shades that he wants to hide away and to forget about and you understood. When he saw the awe and excitement in your eyes as he showed you his magic – you had him. He would have set this planet on fire if you had asked for it. Then he watched you sleep next to him and when there was nothing but you…” As she was talking Hawley took the necklace out of the box, weighing it in her hand. “… this little gem started to speak to him. Telling him that it had been touched by hands that weren’t yours or his. Then he knew and he decided that he would ruin you like he had promised.”

With wide eyes Rayne stared at Hawley, only able to voice a single word. “How…?”

They all were familiar with the grin that spread on Hawley’s face as her female form dissolved in green light. Loki sat there, clad in his armour, looking as smug and deranged as ever. “Hello Christian.”

All happened at once. Steve slammed his fist against the glass panel to break it, the agents pulled their guns and launched forward. Loki didn’t even get up. He threw something into their direction as the glass shattered and none of them had a chance to get into the interrogation room. Another force field appeared out of nowhere, a black wall that separated them from Loki and the others. In frustration Steve tried to hit it while Tony fired at it, but both their attempts were in vain. This couldn’t be happening.

With a single gesture of his hand Loki conjured up some golden form of energy and sent it towards the four agents. All of them were knocked back against the wall.

“Shit… The other door!”

Tony’s idea came way too late as they could see the force field crawling across the solid walls until the covered the single door into the room. Loki had just locked everyone out. He was alone in there with four knocked out agents and a bound, completely defenceless Rayne.

“Steve, he’s going to kill him. We gotta get in there!”

“I know!” They kept attacking the force field with fists and blasts only to see that there was no immediate effect.

There was nothing they could do but watch in horror as Loki made a long, golden dagger appear in his hand, leaning across the table. Rayne swallowed softly but held his head high as he looked at the other one. “I stopped thinking that you would come for me.”

“I was busy.” Loki smiled in the most unsettling way and trailed the tip of the blade along Rayne’s jaw. Steve’s and Tony’s attempts became more desperate but remained useless. Although his eyes betrayed him once again Rayne didn’t flinch nor tried to move away. Instead he kept looking at Loki while the god pressed the dagger against the dark bruise on his temple. “Also I needed you to suffer.”

“I guess you should be satisfied then, because I did.” Rayne stated, but without any bite or reproach. He knew that he was going to die and half of the Avengers was standing right next to him, incapable of doing anything about it.

“Yes, but you see…” Loki reached out, closing his hand around Rayne’s cuffs and ripped them apart without much effort. After standing up he did the same with the cuffs around Rayne’s feet and Tony felt relieved for a second that the dagger wasn’t pointed at Rayne anymore. “… I wasn’t quite what I expected. Stand up.”

Rayne complied and Loki grabbed his arm, turning him around and pulling him against his chest. Loki was going to slit his throat like this, Tony knew it.

The smile was gone from Loki’s face, but he was still completely at ease when he leaned in, putting his lips to Rayne’s ear. They could hear him perfectly, he wasn’t whispering. “Just look at him. So disgustingly weak. Not like you. He knew that and that’s why he took his frustration out on you. Would he had ever dared to put a finger on you if hadn’t been shackled?”

Tony and Steve both stopped what they were doing. A feeling of panic was rising up inside of Tony, watching Loki muttering into Rayne’s ear while the former agent stared at Flint, lying at his feet.

“No.” Rayne replied and this was what it looked like when he fell apart. Thin lips pressed together. Fist shaking slightly.

“Why not?” Loki asked against Rayne’s cheek.

“Because he is coward. He knows I could take him. He just gets off hitting somebody who can’t hit back, because he knows he is weak and pathetic and I am not…”

Loki hummed contently and placed the dagger in Rayne’s hand. “Then what should be done about it?”

“No! Rayne, don’t!”

Steve was yelling, but Rayne didn’t seem to hear it as he was staring at the blade in his hand. Smiling again Loki took a step back and Rayne raised the hand that was holding the dagger.

“Stop!”

Shouting was useless.

Rayne made a half a step forward and then there was chaos. The sound of a gunshot filled the room and Rayne spun around, letting out a hoarse cry. Loki stumbled from the impact of the bullet, bringing one hand to his side and blood was sipping through his fingers. Another shot and Loki hissed.

“No!”

The sight was gruesome. Rayne’s gaunt and weak form threw itself on the agent behind them who was still lying on the floor and who had fired two shots at Loki. Tony had to turn his head away as Rayne rammed the dagger into the agent’s chest again and again. He would only stop when his hands were covered in blood, his sleeves soaked in it.

“Oh god…”

They all seemed paralysed when Rayne dropped the dagger, scrambled back up to his feet rushed back to Loki who was leaning against the metal table, pressing a hand on his side.

“Loki…” Bloodied hands were framing the god’s face as Rayne pressed their mouths together, kissing him desperately. A kiss that lasted for a second before Rayne pulled back, his hands still on Loki. “I am sorry. I am sorry. Please. You have me. Please. I want all of it…”

Helplessly Tony watched in horrid fascination how Loki intensely stared at Rayne, his face blood stained from the other’s hands. His gaze could mean anything. His next gesture was clear though. Tangling his fingers in Rayne’s hair Loki pulled him in a new kiss. So much slower and gentler than the one before.

When they pulled apart green light washed over Rayne, replaced his prison uniform with clothes that Tony thought he had seen him wear before. Running his fingers along the side of Rayne’s face Loki smiled at him and for once it had nothing mad about it. “You’re beautiful…”

Rayne returned the smile and leaned his forehead against Loki while the god wrapped an arm around his waist. “I got so much to show you…”

“I can’t wait…”

As if they had forgotten everything else. As if there was only them in the room.

Then they were gone. Vanished from the room. The force field disappeared with them and yet nobody could move.

The answer to Mr. Brown’s last question was yes.

For both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I might, just might, have had actually a couple of ideas for a sequel over dinner. Just fragments of what their relationship might be like (crazy use of Loki's powers for entertainment, fears, etc.) Do you guys really want that?
> 
> [Do you want a sequel to "Catfishing"?](https://www.poll-maker.com/poll1957799xCD584BFf-53)


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